Grinding of cement clinkers : linking multi-scale fracture properties to system chemistry, mineralogy and microstructure

Growing environmental concerns encourage the cement industry to improve its environmental performance, which in turn renews the interest in clinker grinding efficiency. Current knowledge on clinker grinding was built over the past decades, but contributions from fracture mechanics remained limited. This research aimed to contribute to this field by investigating industrial clinkers with innovative techniques such as multiscale microscratching and statistical electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA). Microstructure investigations were first performed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and three characteristic length scales were defined for clinkers: the nodules at the macroscale, the clinker matrix and porosity at the intermediate scale, and the clinker phases at the microscale. A statistical EPMA method was developed to allow simultaneous determination of the clinker bulk chemistry, the chemistry of the clinker phases, and their abundance. The microscratch test method was downscaled to measure the fracture properties at each characteristic scale of clinkers. Measurements on single silicate grains provided access to the intrinsic fracture toughness, which was three to four time lower than the macroscale fracture toughness. A combination of microstructure effects and toughening mechanisms (crack deflection, crack tip shielding by microcracks, crack trapping, and crack pinning) explained this behavior. Comparison of industrial clinkers showed that higher macroscale toughness (i.e., poor coarse grindability) was associated with oversized alite crystals, which was explained by the increase of microcracks toughening with larger grain size. In contrast, lower macroscale fracture toughness (i.e., better coarse grindability) was associated with either poorly burned clinkers showing excessive porosity or well burned clinkers having a good repartition of small silicates. However, difficulties in fine grinding were expected for the poorly burned clinkers because of the increased amounts of clustered belite. Overall, this thesis presents new experimental methods to investigate clinkers, as well as links between clinkers properties and grindability, both of which hold interest to the scientific community and the cement industry.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Wilson, William, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz-Josef Ulm.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82861

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/82861