A comparative study on physicochemical properties of environmentally-friendly lightweight bricks having potato peel powder and sour orange leaf

Abstract

Using plant residues in building materials may reduce both short and long-term effects on the environment. In this paper, we used potato peel powder (PPP) to investigate the effects of this residue on sound insulation and other physicochemical properties. To achieve the optimal properties of the bricks, we utilized three percentages of dried PPP. We dried bricks and then fired them in the kiln at 1000 °C for four hours. Comparing the dried PPP and sour orange leaf (SOL) powder analysis, which was previously studied, showed that by using 7% of SOL powder, the compressive strength, apparent dry density, saturated density, and thermal conductivity decreased by 77%, 12.5%5, 4.4%, and 76.2%, respectively. While, porosity, water absorption, total shrinkage, dry shrinkage, soluble salt, and sound insulation are increased by 32.4%, 51.6%, 61.9%, 54.05%, 34.21%, and 13.68% compared to the ordinary clay bricks (CBs). However, in this study by adding 7% of dried PPP, the compressive strength, apparent dry density, saturated density, and thermal conductivity are decreased by 88%, 11.9%, 5.4%, 97.7%, and 81.6%, respectively. While porosity, water absorption, total shrinkage, dry shrinkage, soluble salt, and sound insulation are increased by 27%, 46%, 59.52%, 45.95%, 26.32%, and 18.62%, respectively, in comparison with the ordinary ones. Weight reduction in structures, sound insulation at natural frequencies, and crop residue management are the other advantages of these bricks compared to the ordinary clay ones. This value showed an 18.62% increase in bricks with 5% of PPP at a frequency of 5000 HZ compared to the ordinary bricks, which are higher than bricks with 3% and 7% of PPP. Also, these bricks are highly recommended in partition walls since the bricks used in these walls are usually ignored in strength and can be cost-effective due to the low cost of carrying products.