Applied Petrography

Physical and technical properties of stones and ceramic materials. Certificates and international standards.
Transforming natural raw materials and the production cycle for ceramics. Processes and tools for producing powders, shaping and forming green composites.
Designing a ceramic material: phase diagrams, volatility diagrams. Binary and ternary diagrams with phases of fixed composition. Equilibrium and fractional processes. Principles of ternary phase diagrams with solid solutions. Methods for the construction of phase diagrams using experimental data and thermodynamic computation. Interpretation and use of databases. Phase relationships and natural vs. synthetic materials in the diagram Al2O3-SiO2 (use and properties of pyrophyllite, andalusite, kaolin, mullite, corundum, etc.); Phase relationships in the system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (steatite, cordierite, forsterite, spinels). Phase relationships and natural vs. synthetic materials in the diagram CaO-Al2O3-SiO2: the usage of carbonatic rocks in cements, in metallurgy, and in ceramic applications. Concretes. Non-oxides: examples in the system Si-N-C-O.
Producing ceramics: Process variables: temperature, pressure, partial pressure of gaseous species, time. Kilns and furnaces. Synthesis and sintering at environmental and high pressure. Liquid phase sintering.
Quantitative textural analysis of rocks and ceramic materials and relations with physical properties. Principles governing textures. (nucleation, growth, diffusion, etc.). Transformation-Time-Temperature diagrams. Creep in natural and synthetic materials. Creep textures. Fracturing and toughening. Quantitative morphological analysis
The stone market: dimension stones, marbles, granites, stones - commercial definitions. Commercial varieties. Mining technologies and production cycle. Transformation of stones, from blocks to polished slabs and special treatments. Applications.
Practicing in laboratory, in the field and in the industry is programmed.