CE 2330
CEMENT
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Assistant Professor
Building Technology & Construction Management (BTCM) Division
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
Outline
• History of cement industry
• Raw materials
• Manufacturing processes
• Hydraulic and non-hydraulic cements
Beginning of the Industry
• Portland cement was first patented in 1824
• Named after the natural limestone quarried on the
Isle of Portland in the English Channel
Isle of Portland, UK
PCA
Portland Cement First Produced
• 1871— Coplay, Pennsylvania, USA
• 1889 — Hull, Quebec, Canada
PCA
Indian cement companies
• More than 70% of the cement in India comes from…
Company Production (MT) Installed Capacity (MT)
ACC 17,902 18,640
Gujarat Ambuja 15,094 14,860 Data may be wrong
Ultratech 13,707 17,000
Grasim 14,649 14,115
India Cements 8,434 8,810
JK Group 6,174 6,680
MT = Million Tonnes
Jaypee Group 6,316 6,531
Century 6,636 6,300
Madras Cements 4,550 5,470
Birla Corp. 5,150 5,113
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Primary Components of Raw Materials Necessary for
Portland Cement Manufacturing
Quarry
PCA
Storage of raw materials
PCA
Measurement of chemical composition
PCA
Cement manufacturing - Animation
• http://www.cement.org/basics/flashtour.html
• See the interactive video saved in share drive
Cement manufacturing processes
• Wet process
– almost outdated now
• Dry process
– mostly used now-a-days
Dry Process Manufacture of Portland Cement – Step 1
• Stone is first reduced to 125 mm (5 in.) size, then to
20 mm (3/4 in.), and stored.
PCA
Dry Process Manufacture of Portland Cement – Step 2
• Raw materials are
ground, to powder and
blended.
PCA
Dry Process Manufacture of Portland Cement – Step 3
• Burning changes raw mix chemically into clinker.
• Four stages: Preheater, flash furnaces, and shorter
kiln.
PCA
Dry Process Manufacture of Portland Cement – Step 4
• Clinker with gypsum is ground into portland cement
and shipped
PCA
Rotary kiln (furnace)
PCA
Snapshots of a Control Room in a Cement Plant
(Courtesy: Ultratech Cement Plant, Ariyalur)
Clinker + Gypsum = Portland Cement
• Clinker
– Formed by burning calcium and
siliceous raw materials in a kiln.
– Size: About 20 mm (3¼4 in.) in
diameter.
• Gypsum
– A source of sulfate, is
interground with portland
clinker to form portland cement.
– It helps control setting, drying
shrinkage properties, and
strength development.
PCA
Cement Composition
Chemical formula Notation Name Typical
weight %
CaO C Lime, calcium oxide 60-67
SiO2 S Silica, silicon dioxide 17-25
H2O H Water --
Al2O3 A Alumina, aluminum oxide 3-8
F Iron or ferric oxide 1-6
Fe2O3
M Magnesia, magnesium oxide 1-4
MgO
K, N Alkalis, Potassium & sodium oxides 0.5-1.2
K2O, Na2O
S Sulphur trioxide 2-3.5
SO3 C Carbon dioxide --
CO2
3CaO·SiO2 C3S Tricalcium silicate, Alite 45-60
2CaO·SiO2 C2S Dicalcium silicate, Belite 15-30
3CaO·Al2O3 C3A Tricalcium Aluminate 6-12
Tetracalcium Aluminoferrite 6-8
4CaO·Al2O3·Fe2O3 C4AF
Gypsum (calcium sulphate dihydrate) 3-4
CaSO4·2H2O CSH2
M. Santhanam
Clinker + Gypsum = Portland Cement
• Raw materials
– Limestone CaO + CO2 [C + C]
– Clay SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3 [S + A + F]
• Clinker
– Clay + Limestone 3CaO.SiO2 [C3S]
2CaO.SiO2 [C2S]
3CaO.Al2O3 [C3A]
4.CaO. Al2O3.Fe2O3
[C4AF]
• Gypsum CaSO4.2H2O [CSH2]
• Cement Clinker + Gypsum
Typical composition of Ordinary Portland Cement
CSH2
C4AF
(5%)
(8%)
C3A (10%)
C2S (20%)
What is hydraulic cement?
• A material capable of setting, hardening and
remaining stable under water.
• Scanning-Electron Micrograph of Cement Powder
Cement Production - Summary
• Limestone and clay are quarried, crushed, stockpiled and
ground separately. In the wet process, slurries are made
and blended. However, this is uneconomical. In the dry
process, the grinding is performed with dry materials but
some water maybe added to facilitate handling.
• The ground and blended material is fed into a rotating
inclined kiln. As the material slowly moves down the kiln,
evaporation, calcination, clinkering and cooling take place.
(Clinkering is a heat treatment where partial melting occurs)
• The clinker (dark porous nodules of 6-50 mm diameter) is
further cooled with air or water. It is ground to a powder in a
ball mill, along with a small amount of gypsum, to obtain
portland cement. (Gypsum is added to avoid the flash set of
the ground clinker.)
Hydraulic and nonhydraulic cements
• Hydraulic cement (e.g., Portland cement)
– Hardens by reaction with water
– Hydrated products are resistant to water
• Non-hydraulic cement (e.g., Gypsum and lime
cements)
– Hardens by reaction with water
– Hydrated products are NOT resistant to water
Non-hydraulic cement
(Plaster of paris)
Gypsum crystals
• Reaction product (i.e., gypsum cement) is unstable
in water
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Degradation of gypsum based sheets (used for
partition walls) due to exposure to rain water
Hydraulic cement
• Hydrated lime (CH) is unstable in water
• Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C-S-H) is stable in water
Hydraulic
Hydraulic lime mortar
• Romans made “hydraulic lime mortar” by mixing
lime with a reactive volcanic ash (i.e., a pozzolanic
material) found in Pozzuoli near Naples, Italy
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Portland cement
• Definition by ASTM C150:
– “…A hydraulic cement produced by pulverizing clinkers consisting
essentially of hydraulic calcium silicates, and a small amount of one
or more forms of calcium sulfate as an interground addition…”
• A general definition
– A material capable of setting, hardening and remaining stable under
water.
ASTM C150 / C150M - 09 Standard Specification for Portland Cement
C3A and C4AF reactions form ettringite,
calcium monosulphoaluminate, tetracalcium aluminate
hydrate, and calcium aluminoferrite hydrate
C3A 3(CSH 2 ) 26H
C 6 AS3 H 32
water
tricalcium aluminate gypsum ettringite
2[C3 A] 6[C6 AS3 H 32 ] 4H
3[C4 ASH12 ]
water
tricalcium aluminate ettringite calcium monosulpho aluminate
2[C 3 A] CH
12
H C 4 AH13
calcium hydroxide water
tricalcium aluminate tetracalcium aluminate hydrate
C 4 AF 2CH
10
H C 6 AFH12
calcium hydroxide water
tetracalcium aluminoferrite Calcium aluminoferrite hydrate
Mehta and Monteiro; Mindess et al.
C3S and C2S reactions form calcium silicate hydrate
(C-S-H) and calcium hydroxide (CH)
2C3S 6H
C 3S2 H 3 3CH
water
calcium hydroxide
tricalcium silicate C -S- H
– Moderate reaction rate
– High strength
– High heat liberation
2C
S 4H
C 3S2 H 3 3CH
2
water
calcium hydroxide
dicalcium silicate C -S- H
– Slow reaction rate
– Low initial but high later strength
– Low heat liberation
Overall reaction: C3S + C2S + water → C-S-H + CH
Young et al., 1998
Setting and hardening processes
• Setting - Solidification of the plastic cement paste
– Initial set
• Beginning of the solidification (unworkable)
– Final set
• Complete solidification
• Hardening - Strength gain with time
– Higher proportion of C3S
• Higher early strength
– Higher proportion of C2S
• Slow hardening Lower early strength and higher final strength
• Lower rate of heat of hydration
– Fineness also influences the strength development and
heat evolution
Indian Standard (BIS) Cements
• Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)
– IS:269-1989
– classified as 33, 43 and 53 grade;
– grade implies the 28-day strength of the cement mortar made using
standard sand
• Portland Cement, Low Heat
– IS:12600-1989
• Rapid Hardening Portland Cement
– IS:8041-1978
• Portland-Pozzolana Cement (PPC)
– IS:1489-1976
• Portland-Slag Cement (PSC)
– IS 455-1976
Effect of water-cement ratio
• Only 0.42 is required
for complete hydration
of Portland cement
grains
• Durable concrete can
be made with w/c of
0.35 and use of
chemical admixtures
List of tests
• Specific surface / fineness
– Blaine air-permeability test
• Soundness of cement
– Le- Chatelier apparatus
• Setting time (initial and final)
– Vicat needle
• Compressive strength
White cement was used in the ASTM Headquarters in
West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
• AmericanSocietyForTesting&Materials
