Application-

UFCs can have one of three different origins: ordinary portland cement (OPC), slag-based cement, or a combination of a portland-pozzolanic blend.1 UFCs have been used for many commercially available applications (for example, as a grout) for approximately 30 years. These UFC products have many advantages, such as limited or no bleeding, high compressive strength, and good injectability as a chemical material. There are two different ways to obtain UFC from OPC: by dry- or wet-grinding. UFC obtained by dry-grinding has a high fineness (maximum particle size below 787 in. [20 m]) and a Blaine specific surface area (BSSA) of nearly 10,000 cm^sup 2^/g. This UFC is obtained once the OPC is ground in common grinding devices (for example, ball mills); the main disadvantages of this type of processing are the long time spent in milling processing and the high production cost. The wet-grinding has a maximum particle size below 1575 in. (40 m); the main disadvantage is that because it is wet-processed by water, the resulting grout has to be used as fast as possible when the grinding process is achieved and cannot be stored. Some novel grinding devices, such as high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGRs), shaker mills (vibratory mills), stirred mills, and high-energy ball mills (HEBMs), have been used as an alternative to the fine and ultra-fine grinding process, especially in the advanced materials processing research field due to their energetic efficiency compared to other conventional grinding systems, such as ball mills.5 HPGRs, shaker mills, and stirred mills are mainly used for laboratory scale purposes. Huang et al. have used HPGRs for wet-processing to obtain UFC, and Celik et al.6 used the same milling technique to study the liberation of clinker minerals but did not obtain ultra-fine powders. Energetically modified cements (EMCs) produced by the high intensive grinding/activation of portland cement together with different fillers were developed by Justnes et al.7; this kind of cement is processed using shaker mills. Its particle size distribution (PSD) ranges from 394 in. (10 m) to a submicron level and its BSSA is approximately 7000 cm^sup 2^/g. Chagas Cordeiro et al. have conducted vibratory mill processing to obtain ultrafine powders from sugar cane bagasse ash for application as a pozzolanic admixture. These ultrafine powders had a PSD (D^sub 80^) of 213 in. (5.4 m) and a BSSA of approximately 12,000 cm^sup 2^/g. HEBMs are also used for laboratory research but have the advantage of direct scaling up for industrial purposes ; therefore, the use of an HEBM as an alternative to obtain UFC is analyzed herein. The objective of this study is to determine the most suitable parameters for HEBMs used in drymilling portland cement processing to obtain UFC. The aim of the different milling parameters combination is to obtain UFC with a maximum particle size below 590 in. (15 m). The processed cement was characterized by PSD analysis and BSSA as the first requirements to determine the efficiency of the ball-powder ratio (bip), the milling speed (in rpm), and the process time combinations to achieve the desired particle size reduction. Once the best combination of parameters was determined, the processed cement powder was characterized by chemical composition, crystallographic phase quantification by the Rietveld refinement method, change of temperature during the hydration process, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images for the morphology of the milled cement.

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE This work demonstrates that novel techniques such as HEBMs are suitable for use in UFC processing. This kind of technique is mainly used for advanced ceramic and metallurgical applications. The HEBM horizontal rotary ball mill device used herein is intended for laboratory purposes but has the advantage of direct scaling up for industrial purposes by means of highercapacity mills. Additionally, the device used in this study is more efficient than using a shaker mill (which is widely used for HEBM processing) and traditional ball milling devices; therefore, the environmental impact due to the UFC production process can be minimized if this kind of device is used instead of traditional ball milling. Finally, the HEBM can be used to obtain UFC with very well-known and controlled characteristics for different uses of this kind of cement and may be an alternative to an environmentally friendly process to obtain UFC from OPC milling. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY Milling CPC 3OR,9 a commercially available Mexican composite portland cement, was selected to refine its particles using an HEBM. The HEBM was performed using a high-kinetic horizontal rotary ball mill for dry operation (Fig. 1). The inside of the vial is coated with S1^sub 3^N^sub 4^ lining to avoid contamination of material through erosion. As grinding media, 4.40 lb (2.0 kg) of commercial stabilized ZrO^sub 2^ balls with a diameter of 0. 197 in. (5 mm) were used. The optimum milling parameters were achieved by varying three fundamental factors: 1) the bip; 2) the milling speed (in rpm); and 3) the process time (in minutes). Table 1 describes the sample codes and selected milling conditions for running each sample. Milling of the CPC 3OR was conducted in the air at room temperature ( PSD PSD analysis was conducted before and after the HEBM process using a light-scattering particle size analyzer in liquid mode with kerosene as a dispersant and ultrasound agitation for 1 minute. Each measure was conducted three times. Figure 2 shows the semi-log PSD graphics for all the different combinations of parameters listed in Table 1 ; the samples are grouped by b/p. BSSA The BSSA was determined per ASTM C20410 using a commercial Blaine apparatus. The BSSA measurements were conducted at 62.2F (19C), the density of the cement was 0.114 lb/in. (3.15 g/cm^sup 3^), and the porosity of the sample was = 0.530 according to ASTM C204,10 Section 5.2, due to the fine grind of processed cement. Figure 3 shows the calculated BSSA for all samples listed in Table 1.