The improvement in the use of additives and in the packing of particles, associated with the development of new raw materials, such as microsilica and special calcined aluminas, have promoted a great technological advance in the processing of refractory castables in the last decades. Microsilica in particular has been verified to be an important component in the refractory castables evolution. The micrometric size, roundness and high purity allow the processing of castables with high packing density, self-flow behaviour and also the formation of in-situ mullite at temperatures around 1400 ºC, improving considerably the high-temperature properties of such materials. The substitution of microsilica by high-purity kaolin and meta-kaolin in free-cement aluminate refractory castables has been investigated in this work. The lower cost and the fact that this raw material yields mullite at lower temperatures (around 1200 ºC) make the use of kaolin very promising for refractory castable applications. The results have shown that the use of kaolin promotes flowability as high as those shown by castables containing microsilica, whereas the use of meta-kaolin has not yielded equally expressive results. The mullite formation occurred at temperature around 1200 ºC, which is inferior to that observed with microsilica (1400 ºC). The hot mechanical strength was affected by the formation of microcracks in the matrix, most likely due to the higher sinterability of these alumino-silicate raw materials.
refractory castable; microsilica; kaolin; meta-kaolin; mullite; mechanical properties
