Investigation on the Micro-Grinding Induced Crystallographic Variations of Nine Different Clinkers

Abstract

Although clinker has been used for many years, complicated mineralogical properties of clinker pose challenges for the precise quantification. In this study, the mineralogical and crystallographic properties of nine different clinkers according to grinding procedures were investigated. With the dry-grinding for 2 h, particle size reduction to 3 μm of median particle size with a substantial phase transition to an amorphous phase observed, to which alite (C₃S) mainly contributed to the transition. Meanwhile, the crystallographic properties of the clinker phases were barely changed during the wet-grinding. In the wet-grinding program, the amount of ferrite solid solution (C₄AF) with a high linear absorption coefficient was not underestimated. Furthermore, well-corrected preferred orientation effect on C₃S was positively contributed to the analysis result of clinkers with the wet-grinding. Hence, it was suggested that the crystallographic effects observed in the wet-grinding program could produce more reliable results in phase analysis for the clinkers.