Variação do tamanho de grão da magnésia: um exemplo da complexidade de cerâmicas refratária Changing the magnesia grain size: an example of refractory ceramics complexity

Concretos refratários alumina-magnésia apresentam um comportamento expansivo devido à espinelização in-situ, sendo que a fonte de magnésia e o seu tamanho de grão influenciam tal reação. Neste estudo, o aumento do tamanho de grão da magnésia utilizada resultou em expansão excessiva, gerando trincamento e deteriorando as propriedades mecânicas do material. Avaliações por microscopia eletrônica de varredura indicaram microestruturas distintas para concretos contendo diferentes tamanhos de grão (The expansive behavior of alumina-magnesia refractory castable, attributed to the in-situ spinel formation, is affected by the magnesia source and its grain size. In the present work, increasing MgO grain size induced cracking, and, consequently, reduced the mechanical properties as a result of a large expansion. Scanning electron microscopy evaluations after firing at 1500 ºC showed distinct microstructures for castables containing different grain sizes (< 45 µm and < 100 µm). For the composition with finer magnesia, phases commonly detected in the literature were observed: spinel and CA6. Nevertheless, besides those two phases, the castable with the coarse magnesia also presented forsterite and monticellite around the magnesia remaining grains. Hence, the objective of this work is to analyze how the refractory castable properties could be considerably affected even by changing a single parameter: the magnesia grain size