Effect of Water Content in the Raw Material Mixture during Grinding on Alite Monoclinic Phase Formation

Abstract

The article investigates the influence of the water content during grinding the raw material mixture on the formation of monoclinic phases M1 and M3 of alite using the Rietveld method. Four identical raw material mixtures were chosen, differing only in the water content for the grinding process. The milling process in a water environment in a PULVERISETTE 6 planetary mill was chosen for the preparation of the raw material mixture. Based on previous research in this area, a firing temperature of 1450 °C with soaking for 60 minutes was chosen. The results showed that the monoclinic M3 phase is predominantly formed. In contrast, the monoclinic M1 phase forms at lower firing temperatures than the M3 phase and with fewer crystallization nuclei due to less fine grinding. The results show that the amount of water used to grind the feedstock does not make any difference in the final amount of monoclinic M1 and M3 phases.