CONCRETE

History

In 1824 Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement by burning finely ground chalk and clay
until the carbon dioxide was removed. While experimenting in his kitchen, Aspdin found that
by heating clay and limestone at a very high temperature, then cooling, grinding and mixing it
with water he had created a particularly strong cement. Aspdin named the cement after the
high-quality building stones quarried in Portland, England. In the 19th
Century concrete was used mainly for industrial buildings.
 Definition of Cement :
Cement, in the general sense of the word, can be described as a material with
adhesive and cohesive properties which make it capable of bonding mineral
fragments into a compact whole.
This definition embraces a large variety of cementing materials.
For constructional purposes, the meaning of the term ‘cement’ is restricted to
the bonding materials used with stones, sand, bricks, building blocks, etc. The
principal constituents of this type of cement are compounds of lime, so that in
building and civil engineering we are concerned with calcareous cement.
 TYPES OF CEMEnT

13 Types of Cement :

(1) Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)

(2) Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)
(3) Rapid Hardening Cement
(4) Quick setting cement
(5) Low Heat Cement
(6) Sulphates resisting cement
(7) Blast Furnace Slag Cement
(8) High Alumina Cement
(9) White Cement
(10) Colored cement
(11) Air Entraining Cement
(12) Expansive cement
(13) Hydrographic cement
 Usages of different types of cements :
1. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)
Ordinary Portland cement is the most widely used type of
cement, which is suitable for all general concrete construction. It
is the most commonly produced and used type of cement
around the world, with annual global production of around 3.8
million cubic meters per year.  This cement is suitable for all
kinds of concrete construction.
2. Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)
Portland pozzolana cement is prepared by grinding pozzolanic clinker with
Portland cement. It is also produced by adding pozzolana with the addition of
gypsum or calcium sulphate or by intimately and uniformly blending Portland
cement and fine pozzolana.
This cement has a high resistance to various chemical attacks on concrete
compared with ordinary portland cement, and thus, it is widely used. It is
used in marine structures, sewage works, sewage works, and for laying
concrete underwater, such as bridges, piers, dams, and mass concrete works,
etc.
3. Rapid Hardening Cement
Rapid hardening cement attains high strength in the early days; it
is used in concrete where formworks are removed at an early
stage and are similar to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). This
cement has increased lime content and contains higher c3s
content and finer grinding, which gives higher strength
development than OPC at an early stage.
The strength of rapid hardening cement at the three days is
similar to 7 days strength of OPC with the same water-cement
ratio. Thus, the advantage of this cement is that formwork can be
removed earlier, which increases the rate of construction and
decreases the cost of construction by saving formwork cost.
Rapid hardening cement is used in prefabricated concrete
construction, road works, etc.
4. Quick setting cement
The difference between the quick setting cement and rapid hardening
cement is that quick-setting cement sets earlier. At the same time, the rate
of gain of strength is similar to Ordinary Portland Cement, while quick
hardening cement gains strength quickly. Formworks in both cases can be
removed earlier.
Quick setting cement is used where works is to be completed in very short
period and for concreting in static or running water.
5. Low Heat Cement
Low heat cement is produced by maintaining the percentage of tricalcium
aluminate below 6% by increasing the proportion of C2S. A small quantity
of tricalcium aluminate makes the concrete to produce low heat of
hydration. Low heat cement suitable for mass concrete construction like
gravity dams, as the low heat of hydration, prevents the cracking of
concrete due to heat.
This cement has increased power against sulphates and is less reactive and
initial setting time is greater than OPC.
6. Sulphates Resisting Cement
Sulphate resisting cement is used to reduce the risk of sulphate attack on
concrete and thus is used in the construction of foundations where the soil has
high sulphate content. This cement has reduced the contents of C3A and C4AF.
Sulphate resisting cement is used in construction exposed to severe sulphate
action by water and soil in places like canals linings, culverts, retaining walls,
siphons, etc.
7. Blast Furnace Slag Cement
Blast furnace slag cement is obtained by grinding the clinkers with about 60%
slag and resembles more or less in properties of Portland cement. It can be
used for works where economic considerations are predominant.
8. High Alumina Cement
High alumina cement is obtained by melting a mixture of bauxite and lime and
grinding with the clinker. It is a rapid hardening cement with initial and final
setting time of about 3.5 and 5 hours, respectively.
The compressive strength of this cement is very high and more workable than
ordinary Portland cement and is used in works where concrete is subjected to
high temperatures, frost, and acidic action.
9. White Cement
It is prepared from raw materials free from Iron oxide and is a type of ordinary
Portland cement, which is white. It is costlier and is used for architectural
purposes such as precast curtain wall and facing panels, terrazzo surface, etc.
and for interior and exterior decorative work like external renderings of
buildings, facing slabs, floorings, ornamental concrete products, paths of
gardens, swimming pools, etc.
10. Colored cement
It is produced by mixing 5- 10% mineral pigments with ordinary cement. They
are widely used for decorative works on floors.
11. Air Entraining Cement
Air entraining cement is produced by adding indigenous air-entraining agents
such as resins, glues, sodium salts of sulphates, etc. during the grinding of
clinker.
This type of cement is especially suited to improve the workability with a
smaller water-cement ratio and to improve frost resistance of concrete.
12. Expansive Cement
Expansive cement expands slightly with time and does not shrink during and
after the time of hardening. This cement is mainly used for grouting anchor
bolts and prestressed concrete ducts.
13. Hydrographic cement
Hydrographic cement is prepared by mixing water-repelling chemicals and
has high workability and strength. It has the property of repelling water and is
unaffected during monsoon or rains.
Hydrophobic cement is mainly used for the construction of water structures
such as dams, water tanks, spillways, water retaining structures, etc.
 Manufacturing process of
ordinary port land cement (OPC)
From the limestone quarry to the delivery of the end product, follow every step in
the cement manufacturing process :

Step 1: Mining

The cement manufacturing process starts from the mining of raw materials that are used in
cement manufacturing, mainly limestone and clays. A limestone quarry is inside the plant area
and a clays quarry is as far from the plant area as 25 km. The limestone is excavated from open
cast mines after drilling and blasting and loaded onto dumpers which transport the materials and
unload into hoppers of limestone crushers. The clays are excavated from open cast mines and
loaded onto dumpers which transport the materials and unload into open yard storage. Then it is
transported by trucks and unloaded into the hopper of a clay crusher. They are three types of clay
used in cement manufacturing, namely silty clay, Zafarana clay, and Kaolin.
            Other raw materials are used to control the kiln feed mix design, namely sand, and iron ore.
The sand and iron ore are transport from outside the plant (from different suppliers) by trucks and
unloaded into open yard piles, called sand and iron ore piles.  
Step 2: Crushing, stacking, and reclaiming of raw materials

The limestone is crushed in the first crusher called a jaw crusher and then fed into the second
crusher called an impact crusher with mixing of clays to reduce particle size below 50mm. The
discharged raw mix (limestone 70%, clays 30%) is fed onto a belt conveyor and passed across a
bulk material analyser. The raw mix is fed into a circular storage unit called a raw mix storage.
Then, the mix is extracted transversely from the stockpile by reclaimers and conveyed to a raw
mill bin called the raw mix bin for grinding.
The other raw materials that are used in cement manufacturing, called additives, are high purity
limestone, sand and iron ore. The high purity limestone is crushed in a lone in jaw crusher and
then crushed more in a secondary crusher to reduce the size to completely pass through a 50mm
sieve. Then, it is stacked by a limestone stacker into a longitudinal storage unit called the
limestone storage stockpile. Finally, the limestone is extracted transversely from the stockpile by
reclaimer and conveyed to a raw mill bin, called the limestone bin, for grinding.   
Step 3: Raw meal drying, grinding, and homogenization

The raw mix, high grade limestone, sand, and iron ore are fed from their bins to raw mills, called
air swept mills, for drying and fine grinding. The raw mill contains two chambers, separated by
diaphragm, namely a drying chamber and a grinding chamber. The hot gases coming from a
preheater (preheater / kiln system) enter the mill and are used in raw mills for drying. Then the
drying materials enter the grinding chamber of raw mills for fine grinding. The grinding chamber
contains a certain quantity of ball charge in a different sizes ranging from 30mm to 90mm.  The
hot gas and grinding materials mill outlet feeds to a separator which separates fine and course
product. The latter, called reject, is sent to the mill inlet via an air slide for regrinding. The hot gas
and fine materials enter a multistage "cyclone" to separate a fine materials and gases. The fine
material, called raw meal, is collected from the multi-cyclone and then fed into an air slide for
lifting called an Aeropol. The hot gases with very fine materials enter an electrostatic precipitator
to separate the fine materials from gases. The very fine materials called preheater dust or
electrostatic separator dust is collected from filters and fed into screw conveyors and are then
mixed with the fine material in an air slide and transported to an air lift vessel via air slide. In the
air lift, the raw meal is lifted to the silo by compressed air to the air slide and then stored and
homogenized in a concrete silo. Raw meal extracted from the silo, now called kiln feed, is fed to
the top of the preheater via an air lift called the Poldos for pyro-processing.    
 Step 4: Clinkerization

Cement clinker is made by pyroprocessing of kiln feed into the preheater-kiln system. The
preheater-kiln system consists of a multi-stage cyclone preheater with five stages, combustion
chamber, riser duct, rotary kiln, and grate cooler. In the preheater, the kiln feed is preheated by
hot gas coming from the combustion chamber and rotary kiln. Then the preheated kiln feed is
partially calcined (made powdery) in a combustion chamber and riser duct and then completely
calcined in a rotary kiln as well as heated to approximately 1400 C to form clinker components
C3A, C4AF, C2S, and C3S. The main source of heat is natural gas. Natural gas is fired as a main fuel
(100 %) in the main burner rotary kiln and a 95% natural gas and 5.0% heavy oil combination in
the combustion chamber. The fuel is used to provide the heat required to convert the kiln feed
into clinker. Hot clinker discharge from the kiln drops onto the grate cooler for cooling from
approximately 1350-1450 C to approximately 120 C. In the cooler, the quantity of cooling air
required for clinker cooling is extracted from the atmosphere by different cooling fans and fed
into the cooler chambers and pressurized through the cooler plate and clinker bed. The cooled
clinker discharges from the cooler into the pan conveyor and it is transported to the clinker
storage. The clinker is taken from the clinker storage to cement ball mill hoppers for cement
grinding. Part of the hot air extracted from the cooler is utilized as a secondary and tertiary
air for combustion in rotary kiln and combustion chamber, respectively.   
 Step 5: Cement grinding and storage

Clinker and gypsum for OPC, limestone for limestone cement, and slag for slag cement are all
extracted from their respective hoppers and fed to the cement mills. The ball mill grinds the feed
to a fine powder in two chambers, namely the first and second chambers. The two chambers
have a certain quantity of ball charge of different sizes from 17mm to 90 mm. The mill discharge
is fed to a bucket elevator which takes the material to a separator which separates fine and
coarse product. The latter is sent to the mill inlet for regrinding and the final product is stored in
concrete silos.    

Step 6: Packing
Cement extracted from silos is conveyed to the automatic electronic packers where it is packed in
50 kg bags and dispatched in trucks.
 Cement Manufacturing Process
 
Raw Material Preparation and Raw Meal
Design

Part One: Raw Material Preparation

1.General

The production of cement is started from quarrying the raw material. The main raw
materials are limestone, basalt, sand stone, pumice, gypsum. Site Exploration of
suitable deposits, for the raw material has three main aims:-
•Verifying the quality of the raw materials.
•Establishing the range of variation in quality of the raw materials throughout the
working life of the deposit.
•Verifying the workable reserves of raw materials.
Quarrying is the breaking of the rock in a safe and economical way and then
transporting the result to a plant for further reduction in size.
Two main aspects are to be considered for raw material investigation:

•Geometry of the raw material deposit, that means geological boundaries like interfaces
of formations, faults and also topography.
•Quality of the rocks in terms of chemical and mineralogical composition, physical
characteristics like hardness, abrasiveness, pozzolanic activity etc…

Quarrying of raw materials involves (Process of Raw Material Extracting)

1.Mining and removal of Overburden

2.Drilling and Blasting
3.Loading
4.Haulage
5.Crushing
6.Site restoration
 1.Mining and Removal of Overburden

It is a process of excavating and exploiting the raw materials underground for any use.
Limestone for example, the key raw material can be mined in the quarries with
compressed air drilling and subsequently blasting with explosives. The mined limestone
is then transported through dumpers or ropeways to the plant

The method of removals and machinery usages are depend on the under listed factors
relating to the overburden material nature. For example rock over burden can be
broken by blasting or ripping, machineries such as back acting/dragline excavator;
bulldozer can be used for the overburden removal. Moreover, ground surface which is
intact has better bearing capacity than ground in which its top has been removed.

•Strength and hardness; soil or solid rock

•Thickness of the layer
•Haulage distance
•Load bearing capacity
•Susceptibility to weathering (lack of ability to resist)
 1.Drilling and Blasting

Drilling and Blasting are the favored combination for breaking out the raw material.
Blast holes are drilled using drilling machines according to the desired length,
diameter, spacing, and geometric features. The typical Drill depth and Diameters
are:

Drill depth: max. 25m

Drill diameter: 80-165mm

Blasting is the most widely used method to excavate limestone for cement
production as the rock is usually too hard to be ripped or dozed.  After blast holes
are drilled, they will be charged with explosive and the charges are fired.  The
amounts of explosive to be used depend on the specific explosive consumption. The
specific explosive consumption can be determined from reduced scale blasting
measurements based initially on known values from

practical experiences under comparable conditions. The specific explosive

consumption depends on the nature of the rock which may be hard, soft or compact.
 1.Loading

Loading machines in the present technology is concentrated towards hydraulic

excavators and wheel loaders. The machines used for loading in open-pit quarrying for
solid rock such as excavators, hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders and others
depending on the nature of the quarry.

1.Haulage

Haulage comprises the transport of the fragmented rock pile material from the loading
point to the crushing plant. The choice of haulage system may be

•By rail mounted vehicles

•By rubber-tired vehicles and other means such as belt conveyors, wheel loaders etc.

The rock pile loaded to the loading machine is either fed to a primary crusher in the
quarry, the product of which is further transferred to the cement works, or to heavy
dump trucks to be transported to a crushing plant away from the quarry. This depends
on the particle size of the material.
The choice of haulage method depends primarily on considerations of economy. In
addition local factors such as haulage distance and gradient, number of working points
in the quarry, bearing capacity of the ground, and the need for selective quarrying.

1.Crushing
Crusher is a device that is designed to reduce large solid chunks of raw material into
smaller chunks. Crusher will be erected near to the limestone quarry. The limestone
and sandstone is transported from their respected quarry through the help of dump
trucks to the crusher, which is directly passes the crushed raw material to the ropeway
so that the size is reduced to 25 mm.The crushed limestone is stored in the stockpile
through stacker.

Crusher types :

There is a lot of crusher used in cement industry such as;

•Impact crusher
•Hammer crusher
•Jaw crusher
•Gyratory and cone crusher
•Mobile crusher
But, Debra cement factory uses only the first two (Impact crusher and Hammer
crusher).The raw material is crushed at quarry by primary crusher (impact crushers)
Grain size (75-90mm).

Hammer Crushers: –

In DMC, these are mainly used for crushing of correctives, pumice, coal and clinker.
They are used for size reduction of hard to medium grain size and sometimes for wet
and sticky material. Hammer mills work with reduction ratios as high as 1:40 to 1:60 as
primary and 15:1 as secondary crushers. It can be installed for single stage crushing,
primary crushing or secondary crushing. Types of hammer crushers used in DMC,
double shaft hammer crushers and work with the impact effect of the hammers. The
material crushed in double rotor hammer crushers is limited to certain characteristics of
its properties.

Impact Crushers: –
These crushers are suitable for non-abrasive, from soft to hard, slightly wet materials.
The predominant stress used is impact; however cut and attrition are also used. The
maximum reduction ratios are 40:1. There are two types; single rotor impact and double
rotor impact crushers. The specific power consumption of this crusher is 0.7 – 0.9 Kwh
per ton of material. The size reduction work of impact crushers is limited to certain
quality characteristics of the crusher feed.
Table 1: crusher type in DMC and their capacity
Crusher type Capacity (tph) Output grain size Power consumption (KWhpt)

Impact crusher for limestone 90%<75mm 1.8 (excluding cross country

1000
sand stone and gypsum 97%<90mm belt)

Hammer crusher for additives

400 90%<25-50mm 0.9
and correctives

Hammer crusher for coal 150 90%<75mm 0.7

4.Site Restoration

Environmental considerations demand the landscape of a quarry site to be restored

after any quarrying operation ceased on the site. The restoration involves restoring the
landscape to something like its original or to an environmentally friendly way and re-
cultivation of the surrounding to create a biologically and ecologically intact natural
habitat.

1.Raw Material Sources for DMC

In Debra cement factory, the quarry site is 7kmaway from the plant site, which incurs
high transport cost to the factory. Hence, the raw materials (limestone, sandstone and
gypsum…) are needed to be transported by cross country conveyer belt which has a
transportation capacity of 1000 ton/hr.
Belt conveyors are- used for transport of solid objects and bulk materials at great speed,
covering distance from crusher to cement mills (up to 6.4km). Belt Conveyor is also a
suitable means of transporting raw materials and other bulk materials in large quantities
within a short space of time.
Among the major raw materials required for cement production, limestone, sandstone,
and gypsum are abundantly available in Debra.  As it was observed from the
preliminary geological survey of the raw materials study, [this study was conducted by
company during its establishment], that the deposit of the above materials is much more
than enough for the whole plant life for 5,000tpd clinker production capacity. After the
required raw materials are transported to the plant site, limestone and sandstone are
stored in temporary storage called vertical silo or twin silo.
Twin silos are used to store limestone and sandstone that are transported by belt.
Limestone capacity- 2,000tons
Sandstone capacity- 1,000tons

Further, from vertical silo limestone is stored in large storage called circular yard which
has a capacity to store 50,000 ton
Besides, Additive materials like sandstone, basalt, pumice and gypsum is stored in
longitudinal yard which has a capacity to store 48,000 ton. However, gypsum is
directly transport to longitudinal yard. In addition to this, Coal, is also another useful
raw material used as energy source, it is transported from South Africa and stored in a
storage which has had a capacity similar to that of limestone.

Capacities of each materials store in longitudinal yard are;

Sandstone………6,000tons
Basalt……………12,000tons
Pumice…………..24,000tons
Gypsum…………..6,000tons
Moreover,  the above stated raw materials, Basalt (contain clay and Fe 2O3), is
extracted very near the plant site and transported by track so that it is crushed by
hammer crusher at production site and then by using conveyor belt it is allowed to
enter in to longitudinal yard for storage.
The principal raw materials for cement manufacturing are:
•Limestone
•Silica and alumina from basalt , shale or sand
•Iron from iron ore or steel mill scale.
•Sand stone
•Pumice (volcanic ash for Portland Pozzolana cement )
•Gypsum

General Properties of Raw Material Sources

1.Limestone
The basic raw material of the cement production is limestone. Limestone consist of
predominately of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), in generally its most stable modification
known as calcite, in addition, they often contain magnesium, aluminium and iron
combined as carbonates and silicates; Silica (SiO 2), usually in the form quartz, is also
often present. It is critical that limestone (CaCO3) is of adequate quality to permit
proper raw feed formulation. The presence of excessive Mg contamination in limestone
often leads to inferior clinker that forms potentially less durable cements. Mining of
limestone requires the use of drilling and blasting techniques. The raw materials are
loaded at the blasting face into trucks for transportation to the crushing department.
1.Clays and sand
Provide ingredients such as SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, and alkalis that take part in the formation
of the essential phases – silicates, aluminates, and the melts in cement clinker.

1.Pumice
Properties of pumice include: – It increases the quantity of cement and decreases the
strength and the cost of the cement. . Since, pumice, the raw material, required for
production of PPC cement, is not available in Derba. This material has to be transported
by trucks from Meki. In addition to this, pumice is a light material less dense than the
other ingredients.

1.Gypsum
Gypsum one of the raw materials which are added in the clinker and also some part of
Gypsum is inter-ground with the other raw materials in the raw materials preparation.
The addition of Gypsum is good for the settling time of the cement

1.Corrective components
Specifically enriched in one of the four main elements (bauxite, iron ore, sand, high-
grade limestone, etc.). Correctives are used in small quantities only to adjust the
chemical composition of the raw mix to the required quality targets. If an essential
chemical component needed in the cement raw mixture is not present in the required
amount, corrective ingredients are used as additives.
 Properties of Raw Materials

Physical Properties of Raw Material

Moisture content: One of the physical properties of raw materials for cement

production is determinations of its moisture contain. The moisture content of raw
materials is a very important consideration as it varies between wide limits in the same
materials owing to such factors as condition of shipping and storage and the chemical
and physical nature of the materials. Water may occur in materials in two different ways
as water mechanically held (mechanical water), or as water of constitution. Water of
constitution is water tied up as an integral part of the molecule, as in (Al2O3.3H2O) or
as water of crystallization as in borax (Na2B4O7.10H2O). This water of constitution is
generally constant for any one particular material. The mechanically held water is the
water or moisture on the surface or between the particles of the material. To determine
the water mechanically held or, in some cases, some of the water of crystallization, a
weighed sample is placed in a dryer at 110◦C until it comes to constant weight. The
difference between the weight of the sample when dry and its original weight is the
weight of the mechanical water contained in it. The percentage moisture may be based
either on the original weight or on the dry weight. The latter is the better practice.
Moreover, drying oven is used to remove the free water (moisture) in a raw material like
Lime stone, Pumice, and Sand stone except Gypsum at 105 ◦C for one hour.

Gypsum: can be dehydrated very easily at 45 ◦C to remove moisture.

The energy amount and cycle-time that needed for drying and processing the raw
materials are proportional to the moisture contents. For example more energy is needed
to produce enough hot air in order to dry the raw materials with high moisture. Therefore
the moisture content affects and controls the productivity and performance of the raw
milling process,
Generally, the moisture content of raw materials for cement production are usually
prescribed by different specification is not to greater than 1 %.

Grading size (Sieve distribution): the other physical property of the raw material is its
grain size. Which matters the mechanism how to transport from the quarry and the type
of Crusher used to grind it.
Chemical composition
Portland cement is made up of four main compounds: tri-calcium silicate (3CaO ・
SiO2), dicalcium silicate (2CaO ・ SiO2), tri-calcium aluminates (3CaO ・ Al2O3),
and tetra-calcium aluminoferrite (4CaO ・ Al2O3Fe2O3). The percentage
compositions of these compounds vary according to the type of cement required. Small
amounts of uncombined lime and magnesia also are present, along with alkalis and
minor amounts of other elements. Trace amounts of hexavalent chromium are very
often present in the final product. Portland cement dusts less than 1% crystalline silica.

The elemental compositions of the basic raw materials used by DMC are labelled
below

•Sand (sio2)
•Limestone(caco3)
•Basalt(clay and shale) provides Al2 o3, Fe2o3 and sio2
•DMC consume *Limestone (89-91%)

* Basalt (8%)

*Sand (1%).  But, vary with its proportion

Each raw material has a variety of chemical and mineralogical compositions. The
product quality and processing times are extremely variable and depends on the
compositions. The main purpose of the raw materials quality control is in order to
accelerate the sintering reactions and decrease the needed energy to burn the raw meal.
The material quality control process can be achieved by adding corrective materials
such as: Corrective limestone (pure lime stone) and Sand stone.

Chemical composition input here.

Pre-Blending

It is Blending of raw components on (integrated) pre-blending stock piles to a

given target composition.

Process’s variables and factors

Process of mixing the raw materials is required to obtain specific physical and chemical
properties. Blending and homogenization process defined as: a creating of required
specific physical and chemical properties of raw materials by mixing and integrating
certain quantities of those materials. Number of problems can occur and arise within the
cement production line as a result of materials compositions variations. For example
1. Corrosion problems: corrosion within this process has classified into two groups. First,
cold corrosion which can be occurred because of oxidation state. The cold corrosion is
resulted from the reaction of the equipment surface with water and oxygen. Secondly,
chemical corrosion which can be occurred as a result of the chemical reaction between
the corrosive gases and equipment. The raw materials and fuel are counted as the major
sources of the corrosive gases such as: sulphur oxides (SOx), calcium chloride (CaCl2),
and nitrogen oxides (NOx).Corrosion situation affects the performance of raw milling
system by increasing the breakdown rates and reducing the equipment availability and
reliability.
2. Build-up formation of materials and rings forming: Sulphur, Chlorine, and alkali
components may accumulate at the cold zone of the kiln obstructing the raw meal flow
leading to unstable operation. Number of factors can control and keep values of these
volatile components at minimum levels such as : chemical properties of raw meal and fuels,
Oxygen rates, and flame characteristics.

Raw Material Homogenization

Homogenization of raw materials is carried out in pre-blending stores. With proper
layout, all storages for raw materials can be operated as blending storages with varying
efficiency. Raw materials typically are stored in piles representing three to seven days
production, and raw meal is stored in silos that hold three to four days production.
There are various layouts of raw material storages for pre-blending. There are a number
of ways to stack limestone. Most common are the chevron or windrow methods, in
which the materials are stacked in many layers in the longitudinal direction of the raw
material pile. The material is reclaimed from the entire cross section of the pile and the
number of reclaimed layers in the cross section is the important parameter for the
blending efficiency. The pre-homogenizing systems have two major operations: 1)
storing or stacking and 2) retrieval or reclaiming of materials. That is why the facilities
are also often known as “stacker-re-claimer systems,” Depending on their
homogenizing capability, two broad categories can be considered for these systems.
Stacker and Reclaimed machinery
GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag)
 is a cementitious material whose main use is in concrete and is a by-product from the
blast-furnaces used to make iron. The iron ore is reduced to iron and the remaining
materials form a slag that floats on top of the iron.
 Admixtures
The reason for the large growth in the use of
admixtures is that they are capable of imparting
considerable physical and economic benefits with
respect to concrete. These benefits include the use
of concrete under circumstances where previously
there existed considerable, or even insuperable,
difficulties. They also make possible the use of
wider range of ingredients in the mix.
 Types of Admixtures
An admixture can be defined as a chemical product
which, except in special cases, is added to the
concrete mix in quantities (As per TDS) no larger
than 5 percent by mass of cement during mixing or
during an additional mixing operation prior to the
placing of concrete, for the purpose of achieving a
specific modification, or modifications, to the
normal properties of concrete.
Admixtures may be organic or inorganic in composition but their
chemical character, as distinct from mineral, is their essential
feature.
Admixtures are commonly classified by their function in concrete
but often they exhibit some additional action. The classification
of
ASTM C 494-10 is as follows :
Type A : Water-reducing
Type B : Retarding
Type C : Accelerating
Type D : Water-reducing and retarding
Type E : Water-reducing and accelerating
Type F : High-range water-reducing or superplasticing, and
Type G : High-range water-reducing, or superplasticing and
retarding.
Water-Reducing Admixtures