Comparison of the reactivity of comminuted red ceramic waste and calcined pottery raw material

Abstract

The potential of using calcined clay as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) stems from the global availability of clayey raw materials. The calcination dehydroxylates kaolinite and forms a reactive amorphous matrix. The kaolinite contained in the raw materials is a pre-indicator of the possible post-calcination reactivity. In the red ceramic industry, raw material is predominantly composed of clays and quartz. The sintered products discarded in this sector, called red ceramic waste (RCW), present, after comminution, the ability to react with lime depending on the kaolinite content contained in the raw material and its physical-chemical and mineralogical characteristics. In this work, the reactivity comparison was made of two samples of calcined clays from raw materials from different poles of ceramics, with varied kaolinite contents, with the respective RCWs. The reactivity tests were: modified Chapelle, Frattini, R³ test, and performance index (ID), with the variation of Portland cement type. The reactivity depends on the kaolinite content contained in the raw material and the BET specific surface area of ​​the comminuted calcined material. The analysis of the results indicated little influence of the heat treatment on the reactivity of the calcined materials.