Elaboration and Characterization of Mullite Refractory Products from Moroccan Andalusite
Enrichment of schist mined in Morocco resulted in an extract essentially made of andalusite, quartz and muscovite, which was investigated with the aim to synthesize mullite refractory materials. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to assess phase transformations upon heating at different temperatures. Mullite formation starts as early as 1200℃ and seems almost total at 1450℃. This process correlates with a weak shrinkage (3.5% at 1450℃) and the formation of an important glass phase. Green compacts obtained by unidirectional pressing the extract powder were heated under air in the temperature range 1200℃ - 1600℃. Chemical and mechanical properties of these materials were investigated and correlated with their microstructure.
Influence of raw material type and of the overall chemical composition on phase formation and sintered microstructure of mullite aggregates
Abstract Dense mullite aggregates with varied (47–70%) alumina contents have been prepared by a conventional dry-powder pressing technique followed by heat treatments at temperatures in the range of 1450–1725 °C. Different types of clays, beach sand sillimanite (BSS) and a high purity aluminium hydroxide were used as starting materials. Mullites derived from BSS consisted of equi-axed grains whereas those obtained from clay containing precursor mixtures exhibited elongated grains. The bulk density (BD), apparent porosity (AP) and water absorption (WA) capacity of sintered mullites were found to be strongly influenced by the pre-mullitization step of the precursors and in a less extent by the type of raw material, its hydration degree and the impurity contents of Fe 2 O 3 , CaO and Na 2 O. Mullite aggregates obtained from the three different types of aluminosilicate raw materials (i.e., ball clay, china clay and beach sand sillimanite) through a double-stage heat treatment process exhibited better sintered properties in terms of bulk density, apparent porosity, water absorption capacity and higher mullite contents in comparison to those obtained following a single-stage firing process.
DEM generation from new VIR sensors: IKONOS, ASTER and Landsat-7
DEM generation is a living R&D topic since new-launched satellite images can be used to generate stereoscopic images. Using a coplanarity equation model developed at CCRS and an automatic matching method developed at PCI, DEMs are generated with new VIR stereo data. Accuracy of 4.9 m with high-resolution IKONOS images, and 33 m and 101 m with medium-resolution ASTER and Landsat-7 ETM/sup +/ images respectively are obtained. The same matching accuracy of one-pixel is translated into worse results with Landsat due to a small B/H ratio of 0.15.