Abstract :

This work shows the changes in properties of industrial clay bricks collected from the traditional kiln situated at bank of Cauvery, Tamilnadu, India. Samples of local raw clay material already in use for the production of bricks and industrially produced fired brick materials were characterized by combined multi-analytical techniques to determine the relationships among chemical, mineralogical, textural and mechanical properties. FTIR absorption spectra of re-fired industrial clay bricks to different temperatures in air in the laboratory supply information about type of clay mineral presence, its original firing temperature and firing atmosphere. The minerals like quartz, plagioclase (albite or anorthite) and orthoclase were identified using XRD. In order to study the quality of the bricks they were submitted to mechanical analysis such as compressive strength, flexural rupture strength, water absorption, porosity and bulk density. The mechanical analysis reveals that when laboratory re-firing temperature exceeds the original firing temperature of industrial bricks, the compressive strength, flexural rupture strength and bulk density increases, whereas water absorption and porosity values decreases. The results showed that there is a drastic variation in the quality of the bricks collected from different parts of the same kiln.

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Keywords :

Brick, Clay material, Firing temperature, Mechanical properties.

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