Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Single particle impact breakage characteristics of clinkers related to mineral

composition and grindability
Ö. Genç a,*, A.H. Benzer b
a
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, The University of Queensland, 40, Isles Road, Indooroopilly Brisbane Qld 4072, Australia
b
Hacettepe University, Department of Mining Engineering, Beytepe 06800, Ankara, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Single particle impact breakage characteristics of clinkers from different plants were determined by the
Received 13 March 2009 drop-weight technique. Impact breakage distribution parameter (t10) defined by Narayanan [Narayanan,
Accepted 6 June 2009 S.S., Whiten, W.J., 1983. Breakage characteristics for ores for ball mill modelling. In: Proceeding of the
Available online 13 August 2009
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, vol. 286, pp. 31–39.] was used to characterise the break-
age distributions of different clinkers based on the specific comminution energy. The single particle
Keywords: impact breakage resistance parameter as represented by A  b [Man, Y.T., 2000. A model based scale-up
Comminution
procedure for wet, overflow ball mills. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Mining, Minerals and Materials Engi-
Crushing
Sizing
neering, The University of Queensland] based on the model parameters of the well known Ecst10 rela-
Particle size tionship given by Leung [Leung, K., 1987. An energy-based ore specific model for autogeneous and
semi-autogeneous grinding. Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Queensland, JKMRC] was correlated with
the standard bond index number, belite and alite mineral amounts.
Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction extent by raw material preparation, grinding, pyro-processing,

Grinding of raw material and clinker represents approximately
65% of the total electrical energy consumption in a cement plant
and 40% of the total is used in clinker grinding stage. This high
power consumption is both due to the fine size required for the
product and to the mill feed breakage characteristics. The mill
feed breakage characteristics are measured by a grindability in-
dex that measures the ability of clinker to resist grinding. Differ-
ent definitions and corresponding measuring methods have been
reported for grindability (Tokyay, 1999). The most commonly ap-
plied methods in the cement industry are due to Bond (Bond,
1960) and Zeisel (Zeisel, 1953). Primary purpose in determining
Bond or Zeisel index is to assess the grinding equipment effi-
ciency. Based on grindability tests performed according to Bond
and Zeisel methods, clinkers categorized as ‘‘hard” or ‘‘easy” were
found to have typical chemical–mineral composition and texture
(Gável et al., 2006). Among the clinker minerals, alite
(C3 S ¼ 3CaO  SiO2 ) and belite (C2 S ¼ 2CaO  SiO2 ) minerals are
known as providing strength whereas tricalcium aluminate
(C3 A ¼ 3CaO  Al2 O3 ), tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4 AF ¼ 4CaO
Al2 O3  Fe2 O3 ) are the flux minerals. The relative proportions of
these compounds as well as their macro and microstructural
arrangement (texture) predominantly determine the clinker grin-
dability. Since mineral contents and texture are affected to a great
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 3878 4353; fax: +61 733655999.
E-mail address: o.genc@uq.edu.au (Ö. Genç).
cooling rate and even cooler type, grindability is expected to vary
in different plants. Several investigations have been carried out to
develop relationships between grindability and the physico-
chemical characteristics which affect the grindability at the pro-
duction stage (Duda, 1985; Theisen, 1993; Tokyay, 1999; Altun,
1998, 1999).
Impact tests such as drop weight or twin pendulum have
found wide application in direct measurement of breakage char-
acteristics of various minerals (Narayanan and Whiten, 1983;
Narayanan 1985; Andersen, 1988; Leung, 1987; Napier-Munn
et al., 1996; Tavares, 1999; Weedon and Wilson, 2000; Weedon,
2001; Man, 2001). Such tests quantify material resistance to im-
pact breakage based on the data from single particle breakage
tests using different feed sizes. Specific comminution energy-t10
model proposed based on the single particle breakage test results
is given in Eq. (1).
t10 ¼ Að1  ebEcs Þ ð1Þ
In this equation the impact breakage distribution parameter or
breakage index is denoted by t10 which quantifies the amount of
material passing 1/10th of the original size, Ecs is the specific com-
minution energy (kW h/t), A and b are impact breakage parame-
ters. The value of A  b indicates the ease of impact breakage
(Napier-Munn et al., 1996) with higher values indicating more
breakage occurring for a given energy input. Although numerous
investigators (Austin et al., 1984; Asim, 1984; Zhang et al., 1988;

0892-6875/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2009.06.001
 Ö. Genç, A.H. Benzer / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165 1161

Zhang, 1992) have investigated the single particle impact breakage Table 1
characteristics of clinkers, a detailed study that demonstrates the Drop-weight test characteristics.

breakage distributions of clinkers with different mineral composi- Samples Energy levels (kW h/t)
tions is still lacking. Clinker-1 2.79, 3.32, 4.82
The study aimed to investigate the breakage distributions of dif- Clinker-2 3.15, 3.95, 4.94
ferent clinkers on the basis of energy level and establish the rela- Clinker-3 2.42, 2.67, 4.25
tionships between single particle impact breakage resistance Clinker-4 2.86, 3.32, 4.14
Clinker-5 1.00, 2.08, 3.05
parameter A  b, standard bond work index number, alite and belite Clinker-6 1.16, 2.01, 3.01
mineral amounts of different clinkers. It was demonstrated that, Clinker-7 1.07, 2.03, 3.17
clinkers with similar elemental composition constitute different Clinker-8 1.08, 2.11, 3.15, 4.25
mineral proportions and grindabilities. Clinker-9 1.07, 2.09, 3.14, 4.23

2. Breakage tests
Clinker-1
Drop-weight apparatus used in this study is shown in Fig. 1 100
with its design characteristics. Breakage set-up test specifications
were reported by Genc et al. (2004). Table 1 summarizes the en-

Cumulative Passing %
ergy levels studied on each sample. Clinkers provided from nine
different cement plants were used in the tests. Samples were dry
sieved to the size fraction of 9.5 + 8.0 mm and on the average
90 particles were broken at each energy level to characterise the 10
breakage distributions.
Product size distributions resulting from the breakage of 2.79 kWh/t
9.5 + 8.0 mm sized particles at different impact energy levels 3.32 kWh/t
were determined by dry sieving and the 50% passing size (d50) of
4.82 kWh/t
each distribution was determined. Size normalized cumulative
passing distributions of breakage products were constructed on 1
the basis of specific impact energy in which the particle size is re- 0.10 1.00 10.00
scaled by the median size (d50) of the breakage products indicating d/d50
the similarity of breakage distributions independent of particle
Fig. 2. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-1.
size.
Size normalized distributions of each test fraction at different
specific comminution energy levels were found not to coincide Clinker-2
on a single distribution indicating that, energy level has an effect 100
on breakage patterns of each size. Non-self similar breakage size
distributions resulted at an energy level of 1 kW h/t were attrib-
Cumulative Passing %

uted to the occurrence of limited rebreakage events particularly

at low impact energies at single impact modes as reported by Ka-
pur et al. (1996). Plots given in Figs. 2–10 indicated that, different
clinkers exhibit a self-similar distribution at energy levels higher 10
than 1 kW h/t however the consistency of the observed trend
slightly deviates for clinker-8. 3.15 kWh/t
3.95 kWh/t
Ø=65cm 4.94 kWh/t
1
0.10 1.00 10.00
d/d50
6
Fig. 3. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-2.

7
h=107. 5cm

5 2.1. Ecs–t10 models

1
Drop-weight data analysis was done based on the well known
2
3 approach given by Narayanan and Whiten (1983). The resulting
4 Ecst10 relations are shown in Fig. 11. At a constant specific com-
minution energy level, increase in t10 values of different clinkers
Ø=15. 5cm resulted in a decreased resistance to breakage, or less power
requirement to break that clinker type to achieve the same prod-
1.Electromagnetic head 5.Ruler for drop-height adjustment uct fineness. Breakage distributions of particles in the size range
2.5.870 kg lead fixed head mass 6.Mechanical arm of 9.5 + 8.0 mm were used to determine A and b impact break-
3.Steel anvil (Diameter:15.5cm) 7.Drop-weight rail age parameters to characterise breakage resistance. The Ecst10
relation given in Eq. (1) was fitted to the experimental data. Mod-
4.Steel base
el fitting results are shown in Fig. 11 as lines and compared
Fig. 1. Photograph of the drop-weight apparatus. through R-squared values in Table 2.
1162 Ö. Genç, A.H. Benzer / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165

Clinker-3 Clinker-6
100 100

Cumulative Passing %
Cumulative Passing %

10 10

2.42 kWh/t 1.16 kWh/t

2.67 kWh/t 2.01 kWh/t

4.25 kWh/t 3.01kWh/t

1 1
0.10 1.00 10.00 0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00
d/d50 d/d50

Fig. 4. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-3. Fig. 7. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-6.

Clinker-4 Clinker-7
100 100
Cumulative Passing %

Cumulative Passing %
10 10

2.86 kWh/t
1.07 kWh/t
3.32 kWh/t
2.03 kWh/t
4.14 kWh/t 3.17 kWh/t
1
1
0.10 1.00 10.00
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00
d/d50
d/d50
Fig. 5. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-4.
Fig. 8. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-7.

Clinker-5
100 Clinker-8
100
Cumulative Passing %

Cumulative Passing %

10
10

1.00 kWh/t 1.08 kWh/t

2.08 kWh/t 2.11 kWh/t
3.05 kWh/t 3.15 kWh/t
4.25 kWh/t
1
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00 1
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00
d/d50
d/d50
Fig. 6. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-5.
Fig. 9. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-8.

3. Comparison of impact breakage with clinker composition

The chemical and mineralogical compositions of the test clink-
ers determined by X-ray diffraction analysis are listed in Table 3.
Differences in the chemical compositions of the test clinkers are
found to be not significant whereas the differences in mineralogi-
cal compositions do very significantly.
Breakage test results indicated that, Ecst10 relations (Fig. 11)
established on the basis of breakage distributions of 9.5 +
8.0 mm particles at different impact energies were found to be dif-
ferent for each test clinker. The breakage tests showed that differ-
ent clinkers had different hardnesses. The differences can be
attributed to the differences in the amounts of minerals which im-
 Ö. Genç, A.H. Benzer / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165 1163

Clinker-9 resulted no meaningful correlation with the parameter A  b. Non-

100 linear regression analysis to predict A  b from C2S% and C3S% re-
sulted the correlation given in Eq. (3) with a standard deviation
of 7.00.
Cumulative Passing %

A  b ¼ 333  5:8  ðC2 S%Þ  3:4  ðC3 S%Þ ð2Þ

Regression results to predict A  b from C2S% and C3S% resulted
10 the correlations in Eqs. (3) and (4) with standard deviations of
8.55 and 9.79, respectively.
1.07 kWh/t
2.09 kWh/t A  b ¼ 64  1:57  ðC2 S%Þ ð3Þ
3.14 kWh/t A  b ¼ 24 þ 1:08  ðC3 S%Þ ð4Þ
4.23 kWh/t

1 4. Bond grinding tests

0.01 0.10
d/d50
Fig. 10. Impact breakage pattern of clinker-9.
part strength. In this context, impact breakage results were com-
pared with the strength giving mineral per cent amounts of clink-
ers namely alite (C3S%) and belite (C2S%). The silicate structures,
alite (C3S) and belite (C2S) are known to be the most prominent
strength giving components in all clinker compositions (Duda,
1985).
As given in Table 2, with the highest A  b value clinker-2 was
determined to show the lowest resistance to impact breakage
whereas clinker-9 is the hardest sample to be broken. Regression
analysis showed that, impact hardness index (A  b) has a relation
both with belite (C2S) and alite (C3S) amounts as presented in Figs.
12 and 13. Results indicated that, resistance of clinker to impact
breakage increases as C2S amount increases and decreases as C3S
amount increases. Flux minerals of clinkers namely C3A and C4AF
1.00 10.00
Correlations between Standard Bond work index and strength
giving mineral amounts are investigated for clinker-5, clinker-6,
clinker-7, clinker-8 and clinker-9. Standard Bond tests were carried
out using a 90 lm test sieve (Bond,1960). Mineral proportions and
bond index values for those five clinker samples are tabulated in
Table 4. Established correlations are given in Figs. 14 and 15. Due
to the limited number of data set satisfactory results could not
have been obtained although the trends for both relations (Wi–
C2S% and Wi–C3S%) are meaningful such that, increase in belite
content resulted an increase in work index number whereas in-
crease in alite content lead to a decrease in work index number.
5. Conclusions
Experimental data demonstrated that, the technique described
is a potential means to efficiently estimate the resistance of clinker
mill feeds to impact breakage on the basis of alite and belite min-
eral contents. Test results have proven that, alite and belite

Clinker-1 (exp)
80
Clinker-2 (exp)

70 Clinker-3 (exp)
Clinker-4 (exp)
60 Clinker-5 (exp)
Clinker-6 (exp)
50 Clinker-7 (exp)
t10 (%)

Clinker-8 (exp)
40
Clinker-9 (exp)

30 Clinker-1 (t10 model fit)

Clinker-2 (t10 model fit)
20 Clinker-3 (t10 model fit)
Clinker-4 (t10 model fit)
10 Clinker-5 (t10 model fit)
Clinker-6 (t10 model fit)
0
Clinker-7 (t10 model fit)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Clinker-8 (t10 model fit)
Specific Breakage Energy (kWh/t)
Clinker-9 (t10 model fit)

Fig. 11. Ecst10 relationships for 9.5 + 8.0 mm size fraction of different clinkers.

Table 2
Size-specific impact breakage parameters for different clinkers.

Size fraction (mm) Impact parameter Clinker-1 Clinker-2 Clinker-3 Clinker-4 Clinker-5 Clinker-6 Clinker-7 Clinker-8 Clinker-9
9.5 + 8.0 Ab 52.88 56.74 38.65 45.93 24.68 43.94 27.70 16.33 14.76
R2 0.999 0.999 0.997 0.999 0.999 0.999 0.993 0.977 0.999
1164 Ö. Genç, A.H. Benzer / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165

Table 3
Chemical and mineralogical compositions of clinkers.

Primary oxides Clinker-1 Clinker-2 Clinker-3 Clinker-4 Clinker-5 Clinker-6 Clinker-7 Clinker-8 Clinker-9
CaO 64.65 66.21 64.79 66.42 63.44 64.49 64.22 65.90 66.95
SiO2 20.40 21.33 21.53 21.60 21.47 21.05 21.03 21.31 20.98
Al2O3 5.76 4.56 5.60 6.40 5.69 5.14 5.46 5.59 5.54
Fe2O3 2.56 3.38 2.90 3.68 4.01 4.12 3.96 3.95 3.79
MgO 2.66 1.31 1.54 0.65 2.42 2.98 2.31 0.88 0.84
K2O 0.94 0.54 0.89 0.43 0.96 0.49 0.94 0.92 0.83
Na2O 0.25 0.16 0.16 0.07 0.38 0.33 0.35 0.26 0.25
SO3 1.76 1.67 1.64 0.6 0.91 1.19 0.85 0.39 0.35
Cl– 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.01 – 0.005 0.005
LOI 0.44 0.25 0.31 0.10 – 0.15 – – –
Mineral content %
C3S 65.75 71.92 58.32 54.94 48.41 57.75 56.80 52.83 55.13
C2S 8.89 6.90 17.73 18.41 25.13 16.85 17.52 21.24 22.76
C3A 10.93 6.36 9.93 11.68 8.32 6.66 7.77 8.13 8.27
C4AF 7.79 10.28 8.82 10.66 12.19 12.54 12.06 12.01 11.55

80 20
W i =0.4024 (C2 S%)+5.1463
70 18
R 2 =0.7815
60 16

W i (kWh/t)
50 14

12
A.b

40
10
30
8
20 0 10 20 30 40

10 C2S (%)

0 Fig. 14. Correlation between bond work index and C2S%.

0 10 20 30
C2S% 20

18
Fig. 12. Relationship between A  b and C2S%.
16
W i (kWh/t)

14
80
12
70 W i =-0.4099 (C3 S%)+35.685
10
60 R 2 =0.9187
8
50 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
C3S (%)
A.b

40
Fig. 15. Correlation between bond work index and C3S%.
30

20 amounts could be correlated both with impact breakage parameter

A  b and standard bond work index.
10 The clinkers tested all had similar elemental compositions how-
ever varied in mineral composition and grindability. Potential sav-
0
ings in grinding costs by varying the mineral composition through
0 20 40 60 80
variation in processing conditions and the correlations needs to be
C3S% further investigated.
Fig. 13. Relationship between A  b and C3S%.
Acknowledgments

The financial support to this work from Turkish Scientific and

Table 4
Strength giving mineral amounts and standard bond index values of clinkers. Technical Research Council (Project No: MISAG 190), Prof. A.J.
Lynch and Prof. W.J. Whiten for their valuable discussions, A. Seyfi
Parameter Clinker-5 Clinker-6 Clinker-7 Clinker-8 Clinker-9 _
Erdem who conducted the Bond tests, Aysun Günlü, Ilkay Bengü
C2S% 25.13 16.85 17.52 21.24 22.76 Çelik, Namık A. Aydoğan, Can E. Özer, Serkan Dikmen for their ef-
C3S% 48.41 57.75 56.80 52.83 55.13
fort in sampling and experimental studies are gratefully
Wi (kW h/t) 15.45 11.53 12.45 14.66 13.29
acknowledged.
 Ö. Genç, A.H. Benzer / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 1160–1165 1165

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