Investigation of availability of raw perlite in refractory building material production

Abstract

Perlite having rich reserves in Turkey is basic industrial raw material in line with sustainable development objectives. In recent years due to the thermal insulation properties expanded perlite has attracted the attention of researchers. It is started to use in some construction areas. Binder material is used to shape in the manufacturing of refractory bricks. Desired material was sintered at high temperature. In this study, perlite between 75-600 µm particle size was subjected to heat treatment at different temperatures and investigated to use in refractory construction materials production. Perlite grains clinging to each other engage a smooth shape. Gypsum is used as an activator in different proportions to achieve this objective. The samples were subjected to heat treatment at 1050-1200 °C for 30 minutes. In the 5% gypsum mixture highest compressive strength at 1150 °C was calculated as 47 MPa. Unit volume weight is considered as 1.95 g/cm3, water absorption by weight is determined as 0.30%. Superficial abrasion loss was determined to be 20 mm. Degree of porosity is calculated as 15%. Compactness was found to be 85%. Furthermore in the results of experiment of freezing of the obtained products was not found any damage or any strength loss. © 2018 Ergün Yesilyurt, Osman Simsek, Ahmet Bilgil.