Exploratory data analysis of trace elements in clinker

Analysis of trace element measurement data from clinker may lead to insights into raw material properties and could be used to solve practical problems, namely to determine the origin of the clinker (i.e. the manufacturing works). For this purpose, several hundred clinkers from nine countries were analysed by replicated quarterly samples to determine their Mg, Sr, Ba, Mn, Ti, Zr, Zn and V contents. This paper presents a survey of simple exploratory data analysis procedures that have been found to be particularly useful in the qualitative analysis of clinker trace element contents. Data presentation box and quantile-quantile plots are proposed and used to analyse the relationships between different factories and different trace elements.