The steel sector is the highest consumer of refractory materials worldwide, accounting for more than the 70% of the overall production. In parallel, for each ton of steel produced roughly 10 kg of refractories are used of which, on average, 40% are consumed during the production process and the remaining become waste. Although recycling practices are pivotal to accomplish EU Green Deal circularity targets, improvement of operative lifetime and re-use of refractory products are at a higher priority level. Reliable investigations to improve refractory operativity require the combination of experimental analysis, on site recording, post-mortem investigation, and numerical methods. Among the different analytical approaches, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been considered. From FEA simulation of tundish continuous casting steps conditions, the resulting key parameters for an effective prediction of refractory linings energetic performance has been extrapolated. Furthermore, supported by experimental measurements on new and post-mortem refractories, the impact of different anchoring arrangements has been evaluated. Transient thermal analysis at each time step of the casting has been computed, and the results compared over different steps may allow an estimation of the remaining useful life of the refractories considering operational guidelines and thermal efficiency standards.