Characterization using thermomechanical and differential thermal analysis of the sinterization of Portland clinker doped with CaF2

In this work, the sintering process of Portland cement was studied by combining thermomechanical analysis (TMA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA), together with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermal analysis results employing both techniques indicted that phase transformations appeared at lower temperatures when CaF2 was incorporated in the raw materials. Besides, it was observed at high temperature that in some phase transformations TMA conducts to better resolution compared with the DTA measurements. Furthermore, mechanical properties and X-ray diffraction patterns corroborate the TMA and DTA results, corroborating that the final amount of alite (Ca3SiO5) is higher when a certain amount of CaF2 was present during the clinkerization process.