<p>Dry-jointed refractory masonry structures in metallurgical vessels require accurate thermo-mechanical modeling to predict service life and failure mechanisms. Existing homogenized models, while computationally efficient, fail to capture tensile stress effects during cooling phases, leading to significant prediction inaccuracies. This study presents an improved homogenized model that incorporates a nine-state constitutive framework to account for tensile-compressive interactions. Through systematic comparative simulations of the local structure at the bottom of the hot metal ladle using the detailed model, original homogenized model, and improved homogenized model, this study demonstrates that under thermo-mechanical cycling, the deviations between the improved model’s predictions of stress and creep strain and the average values from the detailed model are within 5%. Moreover, the joint state transition process of the improved model aligns fully with that of the detailed model. Meanwhile, by simplifying the geometry, the improved model reduces the computational cost by more than 50%. In contrast, while the original homogenized model also offers high computational efficiency, its results show significant deviations from those of the detailed and improved models when tensile stresses develop due to structural cooling. Thus, the improved model effectively addresses the coupling effects of tensile stress and is better suited for full-scale refractory lining simulations under real operating conditions. These advancements provide theoretical and methodological support for furnace design optimization and thermo-mechanical failure prediction in industrial applications.</p>