Abstract
The present work aims at quantifying the sizes and the distribution of pores in bricks among a series of various investigations for the characterization and the suitable evaluation of the pore nature. The measurements were carried out for mercury-refractory contact angle by the break-through pressure method and for the pore sizes and the distribution by the mercury porosimetry. The discussion has been based on the hydraulic radius without any models assumed for the pore texture. The results are;
(1) The contact angles of mercury-alumina and-mullite are 2.54 and 2.44 rad, respectively.
(2) A good agreement is shown in the water absorption values measured by the mercury porosimetry and the water displacement in vacuum.
(3) Among the representative radii for the pores in the bricks, the smallest is the mode one, the larger being the area mean, the median, the volume mean in this order, but the area mean radius is not always larger than the mode one. The cumulative volume at the volume mean pore radius is 2.2 times as large as that at the area mean one.
(4) The composite weibull distribution can be well adapted to the accurate expression of the pore size distribution in the bricks.
