Cement Clinker

Product Description

Portland cement clinker is a dark grey nodular material made by heating ground limestone and clay at a temperature of about ***0 C****0 C. The nodules are ground up to a fine powder to produce cement, with a small amount of gypsum added to control the setting properties.

 

Nodules range in size from 1mm to *5mm or more and are composed mainly of calcium silicates, typically *0%**0%. The strength of concrete is mainly due to the reaction of these calcium silicates with water.

Portland cement clinker contains four main minerals:

Alite: approximately tricalcium silicate (typically about *5% of the total)

Belite: approximately dicalcium silicate (typically about *5% of the total)

Aluminate: very approximately tricalcium aluminate (typically about 7% of the total)

Ferrite: very approximately tetracalcium aluminoferrite (typically about 8% of the total)

 

The balance is made up of alkali sulfates and minor impurities. The typical mineral contents shown are subject to wide variation.

Optical microscope image (polished section) of nodule. Brown crystals are alite, blue crystals are belite, bright interstitial material is mainly ferrite, with small dark inclusions of aluminate. Grey material is the epoxy resin used to make the specimen. NB: Alite is not actually brown and belite is not actually blue - they appear brown and blue here because the polished section has been etched to show the crystals more clearly. 



A clinker chemical analysis is normally given in oxide form - a typical example might be: