EFFECT OF GRINDING METHOD ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF BLENDED CEMENTS

Abstract

The benefits of using mineral admixtures as a partial replacement of portland cement (PC) are well established in the literature. Economic and environmental advantages by reducing CO2 emissions are well known. This paper examines the influence of intergrinding and separate grinding on the amount of energy consumption, Blaine fineness and particle size distribution (PSD) of blended cements, namely portland pozzolana cement (PPC), portland limestone cement (PLC), and portland composite cement (PCC). In this study, 18 types of cements including two types of portland cement (PC), four types of portland -limestone cement (PLC), four types of portland -pozzolan cement (PPC), and eight types of portland -composite cement (PCC) were used. The results show that particle size distribution (PSD) of blended cements varies for each method. In intergrinding method, interactions between cements components can affect final product properties positively or negatively. In other words, proper use of these interactions not only promotes process of grinding in multi components cements, but also improves particle size distribution of these cements.