Portland clinker with civil construction waste: influence of pellet geometry on the formation of crystalline phases

Abstract Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the context of sustainable development have intensified, with the development of research aimed at the production of new materials and binders for construction. This article analyzes the influence of pellet geometry in the production of clinkers, with the incorporation of construction waste (CCW). Procedures adapted from the method proposed by Brazilian Portland Cement Association were adopted in studies of laboratory clinkers, in an attempt to simulate the stages of the industrial process. Pellets were prepared with the same formulation, however, with four different geometries: spherical, with diameters of 1 cm, 2 cm and 3 cm, with manual molding, and semi-spherical, with a diameter of 2 cm, using molds of PLA (polylactic acid) printed on a 3D printer to facilitate the molding of the clinkers in a standardized way. Clinkers were characterized mineralogically by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Rietveld method was used to quantify the phases. Variations in the quantities of the alite and belite phases were observed depending on the geometry of the pellets, although the same calcination conditions were used. This is probably due to the variation in the surface area (exposure area) and the gradients of the cooling rate.