Effect of Particle Size Distribution on Properties of Alumina Refractories

Particle size distribution and packing of particles are important to achieve high packing density and also fired density of any ceramic product. Mono-sized particles can only achieve upto a certain extent of packing density and for further increase in packing multiple sizes are required. The basic concept of packing of multiple sizes of grains is that finer grains go into the interparticle voids of the coarser particles and thus improve the packing density. In the present study alumina based refractory is planned with using three different alumina grains. Effect of different grain size distributions using these three different sized grains on the fired properties of the pressed and fired shapes are studied. Six different distributions were used in the study, which were pressed and fired at 1550, 1600 and 1650ºC. The fired products were characterised for volumetric shrinkage, bulk density, apparent porosity and cold crushing strength