Effect of particle size of hydromagnesite on properties of calcium aluminate cement bonded corundum based castables

Calcium aluminate cement was premixed with hydromagnesite having different particle sizes, as a calcium magnesium aluminate cement precursor, to investigate the influence of particle size of hydromagnesite on the volume stability and thermo-mechanical properties of corundum based castables after firing at 1550 °C. The impact of particle size of hydromagnesite on the phase composition and microstructure evolution of fired castables matrix were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The results demonstrate that hydromagnesite with smaller particle size has a better volumetric stability and thermo-mechanical properties of castables, because of the more homogeneously distributed micro-pores, and smaller size MA and CA6 resulted from the more uniformly distributed hydromagnesite in castables.