Mass balance clinkers

Any standard method of matrix inversion, such as the Gauss-Jordan method (N13), may be used to solve the equations. The coefficients in equations 4.11-4.14 may be used without serious error for most ordinary Portland cement clinkers in which the alite composition is not too different from that assumed here. As a byproduct of the calculation described in this section, and using the full compositions of the phases given in Table 1.2, one may calculate a mass balance table (Table 4.3) showing the distributions of all the oxide components among the phases. 

It is possible to evaluate the real raw meal flow rate by a loss on ignition, L.o.I.-free mass balance, and hence calculate the real raw meal to clinker ratio. The measured preheater dust flow rate (given at a raw meal feed... 

The in-out mass balance is shown in Table 31.39. The air mass balance is shown in Table 31.40. The clinker cooler mass balance is given in Table 31.41. 

A typical CH content in the pastes prodnced from Portland cement is in the range 18-25 % after 3 month of hardening. AFt is present only at early age. Using some assumptions and methods Taylor [27] proposed a mass balance for the paste prepared at w/c=0.5 and stored one year at 11%RH. The following volume ratios of particular phases were proposed clinker 0.05 CH 0.11 CaCOj 0.01 C-S-H... 

Clinker phase reaction degrees may be verified by SEM-IA or solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Mass balance calculations can be used as a first-line check for internal consistency. For example, portlandite and ettringite quantification results can be compared to theoretically calculated portlandite and ettringite contents calculated from the reacted amounts of C3S/C2S and C3A/C4AF, respectively. 

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