Magnesia (MgO) easily reacts with water when exposed to humidity or along the mixing of refractory castables, resulting a Mg(OH)2 coating layer on its particle surface. During castables dewatering above 350 ºC this coating begins to decompose, generating porosity and a highly reactive magnesia. Despite the abundant literature concerning magnesia hydration-dehydration mechanisms, few studies were related to refractory. In the present work, aqueous suspensions of thermally treated magnesia sinter were prepared and the influence of the calcination temperature on magnesia reactivity was estimated by the apparent volumetric expansion measurements. Based on these results, the drying behavior of magnesia sinter containing castables was related to mechanical strength and porosity measurements. The effects of re-hydration damages caused by humidity exposition after drying was also investigated.
magnesia; hydration; calcination; dehydration
