CSE 224: ENGINEERING MATERIALS II.

2nd Semester 2017/2018.

Lecturer: Dr. Bruce Kandie Week 1

PORTLAND CEMENT MANUFACTURE

CEMENT
Cement is a material with adhesive and cohesive properties which make it capable of bonding mineral fragment in to
a compact whole.

In construction, the term cement is restricted to the bonding material used with:

1. Stones
2. Sand
3. Bricks
4. Building blocks, etc
History of Cement:
Utilization of cementing materials is very ancient.

1. The Egyptians used calcined impure gypsum.

2. The Greeks and the Romans used Calcined limestone and later learned to use add lime and water, sand and
crushed stone or brick and broken tiles and this become the first concrete in history.
3. Romans ground together limestone and a volcanic ash or finely ground burnt clay tile, which had a active
Silica and Alumina in the ash and the tile, with the lime to produce a pozzolamic cement (named after the
village – Pozzuoli in Italy, where the ash was first found)
4. There was a decline in the use cement in the middle Ages until 18th century:
o 1756 – John Smeaton, learned the chemical properties of hydraulic of lime obtained by burning a
mixture of clay and lime.
o James Paker made Rome cement by calcinating nodules of argillaceous limestone.
o Joseph Aspdis in 1924, at low temperature heated a mix of finely divided clay and hard limestone
in a furnace until CO2 had been driven off, culminating to a patent of ‘Portland Cement’
o Isaac Johnson in 1945 made a prototype of modern cement by burning a mixture of clay and chalk
until clinkering, so that the reactions necessary for the formation of strong cementitious
compounds took place.
5. The name ‘Portland Cement’ remains to this day due to the resemblance of the colour and quality of the
hardened cement to Portland Stone – a limestone quarried in Dorset.
Portland cement is cement obtained by intimately mixing together calcarious and argillareous, or other silica,
alumina, iron oxide bearing material, burning them at a clinker.
Manufacture of Portland Cement

Portland cement is made form:

1. Calcareous materials: limestone or chalk,

2. Argillaceous materials: alumina, silica found in clay or shale
3. Marl, a mixture of calcareous and argillaceous materials.

The process of manufacture of cement consist of essentially of grinding the raw materials, mixing them intimately in
certain proportions and burning in a large rotary kilt at a temperature of up to about 1,450 °C when the material
sinters and partially fuse into balls known as clinker. The clinker is cooled and ground to fine powder, with some
gypsum (5% of the total batch of cement by weight) added and the resulting product is commercial ‘Portland
Cement’ so widely used throughout the world.
Manufacturing cement is done in two processes:
1. Dry Process and
2. Wet Process

© Dr. Bruce Kandie 2017/2018 Academic year Page 1 of 4

CSE 224: ENGINEERING MATERIALS II.
2nd Semester 2017/2018.
Lecturer: Dr. Bruce Kandie Week 1

© Dr. Bruce Kandie 2017/2018 Academic year Page 2 of 4

 CSE 224: ENGINEERING MATERIALS II.
2nd Semester 2017/2018.
Lecturer: Dr. Bruce Kandie Week 1

Wet Process:

Chalk is finely broken up to and dispersed in water a washmill - a circular pit with revolving radial arm
carrying rake which break up the lumps of solid mater
Clay is also broken up and mixed with water, in a similar washmill
The two mixtures are pumped so as to mix in a predetermined proportions and passed through a series
of screens - blended.
The resulting cement slurry flows in to a storage tanks.
The slurry is a liquid of creamy consistency, with 35 – 50% water content and only a small fraction of
material – about 2% larger than 90 µm sieve size
Lime is added to the slurry by the governing proportion in order to achieve the required chemical
composition
The slurry with the desired lime content is passes into the rotary kiln: which is a large refractory-lined
steel cylinder, up to 8 m in diameter, sometimes as long as 230 m, slowly rotating about its axis, and
slightly inclined to the horizontal
The slurry is fed in the upper end while pulverized coal is blown in by an air blast at the lower end of
the kiln, where the temperature reaches about 1450 °C.
The slurry in its movement down the kiln, encounters a progressively higher temperature, which at first
drives water off and CO2 is liberated; further on the dry material undergo a series of chemical reactions
until finally in the hottest part of the kiln, 20 – 30% of the material become liquid and lime, silica and
alumina combine. The mass the fuses in to balls 3 – 25 mm in diameter, known as clinker.
The clinker drops in to cooler of various types and often provide means for an exchange of heat with
the air subsequently used for the combustion of the pulverized coal
The kiln has to operate continuously in order to ensure a steady regime and uniformity of clinker and
also to reduce the deteriorating of the refractory lining.
The flame reached 1,650 °C
New wet process plants are no longer being built due to high energy used in production of cement.

Dry Process:

The material are crushed and fed in the correct proportions in to the grinding mill, where they are
reduced to size to a fine powder called raw meal, which has a 0.2% moisture content
The raw meal is pumped to a blending silo and final adjustment are made in the proportion of the
materials required in the manufacture of cement by compresses air system, to obtain a uniform and
intimate mixture
Air is pumped for an hour or sometimes continuous to obtain a blended uniform mix
The raw meal is passed through a pre-heater, usually of a suspension type, that means that the raw
meal particles are suspended in the rising gases.
The raw meal is heated to 800 °C before being fed to in to the short rotating kiln, with the
temperature 820 °C at the fluidized calciner, meant to increase the decarbonation of the raw meal
prior to entry in to the kiln. Thus greatly increasing the kiln clinker output.
The kiln is 6.2 m in diameter and 105 m long
On the exit of the kiln, clinker is cooled, the heat being used to preheat the combustion air
The cooled clinker is interground with gypsum in order to prevent flush setting of cement, then
grinding is done in the ball mill, the fine particles removed to the storage silo by an air current.
While the coarser particles are passed through the mill once again for grinding.
The main Compound of Portland Cement
The four main major constituent of cement are:

1. Tricalcium Silicate 3CaO.SiO2 C3S

2. Dicalcium Silicate 2CaO.SiO2 C2S
3. Tricalcium Aluminate 3CaO.Al2O3 C3 A
4. Tetracalcium Aluminoferrite 4CaO.Al2O3. Fe2O3 C4AF

© Dr. Bruce Kandie 2017/2018 Academic year Page 3 of 4

CSE 224: ENGINEERING MATERIALS II.
2nd Semester 2017/2018.
Lecturer: Dr. Bruce Kandie Week 1

The oxide limit for the compositions of Portland Cement are:

Oxide Cement, per cent

CaO 60 – 67

SiO2 17 – 25

Al2O3 3–8

Fe2O3 0.5 – 6.0

MgO 0.5 – 4.0

So3 Alkalis (as NaO) 0.3 – 1.2

So3 2.0 – 3.5

The summarized pattern of formation and hydration of cement is as shown below.

COMPONENT ELEMENT

Si Ca Al Fe

COMPNENT OXIDES

CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3

CEMENT COMPOUNDS

C3S C2S C3 A C3AF

PORTLAND CEMENT

Various type of Portland Cement

HYDRATION PRODUCTS

Gel Ca(OH)2

NB: Student to read on the types of Cement and make notes.

© Dr. Bruce Kandie 2017/2018 Academic year Page 4 of 4