Applications of clinker microscopy for approaching a special case study in cement production

Within this article the importance of the optical light microscopy for the investigation of cement clinker is illustrated by three examples: (a) Ono's method plays an important role in the case of the production of oil well clinker where the reactivity of alite and additionally the melting phase influences strongly the properties of the later cement; (b) the use of secondary fuels can lead to unexpected phenomena in the clinker matrix accompanied by strange changes in colour; (c) for the interpretation of CSA clinkers, the combination of light and scanning electron microscopy can give important information about the formation of clinker phases depending on the burning conditions which can hardly be detected by other methods. However, in case of CSA clinker, there is still little knowledge about the relationship between production and hydraulic properties of the clinker and therefore no systematic documentation is available.

Automated summary

This article illustrates the importance of optical light microscopy for the investigation of cement clinker through three examples: (a) Ono's method plays a vital role in the production of oil well clinker, where the reactivity of alite and the melting phase significantly influence the properties of the cement produced later; (b) the use of secondary fuels can lead to unexpected phenomena and color changes in the clinker matrix; (c) the combination of light and scanning electron microscopy provides valuable information about the formation of clinker phases in CSA clinkers, which is difficult to detect with other methods. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the relationship between production and hydraulic properties of CSA clinker, resulting in a lack of systematic documentation available.