Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 162-172).Growing environmental concerns encourage the cement industry to improve its environmental performance, which in turn renews the interest in clinker grinding efficiency. Current knowledge on clinker grinding was built over the past decades, but contributions from fracture mechanics remained limited. This research aimed to contribute to this field by investigating industrial clinkers with innovative techniques such as multiscale microscratching and statistical electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA). Microstructure investigations were first performed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and three characteristic length scales were defined for clinkers: the nodules at the macroscale, the clinker matrix and porosity at the intermediate scale, and the clinker phases at the microscale. A statistical EPMA method was developed to allow simultaneous determination of the clinker bulk chemistry, the chemistry of the clinker phases, and their abundance. The microscratch test method was downscaled to measure the fracture properties at each characteristic scale of clinkers. Measurements on single silicate grains provided access to the intrinsic fracture toughness, which was three to four time lower than the macroscale fracture toughness. A combination of microstructure effects and toughening mechanisms (crack deflection, crack tip shielding by microcracks, crack trapping, and crack pinning) explained this behavior. Comparison of industrial clinkers showed that higher macroscale toughness (i.e., poor coarse grindability) was associated with oversized alite crystals, which was explained by the increase of microcracks toughening with larger grain size. In contrast, lower macroscale fracture toughness (i.e., better coarse grindability) was associated with either poorly burned clinkers showing excessive porosity or well burned clinkers having a good repartition of small silicates. However, difficulties in fine grinding were expected for the poorly burned clinkers because of the increased amounts of clustered belite. Overall, this thesis presents new experimental methods to investigate clinkers, as well as links between clinkers properties and grindability, both of which hold interest to the scientific community and the cement industry.by William Wilson.S.M
