Comparative Study About AAC Block with Porotherm Brick

Abstract

Abstract: Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks are recently one of the newly adopted building materials. AAC is a product of fly ash which is mixed with lime, cement, and water and an aerating agent. The AAC is mainly produced as cuboid blocks and prefabricated panels. AAC is a type of concrete that is manufactured to contain lots of closed air voids. AAC blocks are energy efficient, durable, less dense, and lightweight. It is manufactured by adding a foaming additive to concrete in different sizes of molds as per requirement, then wire-cutting these blocks or panels from the resulting ‘cake lump’ and ‘heating them with steam. This process is called as Autoclaving. Porotherm clay bricks are horizontally or vertically perforated clay bricks. they are manufactured in variety of sizes (common size is 400x200x200 mm) from natural clay, coal ash, rice husk, and granite slurry. The term Porotherm is used for this type of brick due to its desired thermal insulation characteristics. The perforation of the clay brick provides an exception walling system which facilitates thermal insulation resulting in cooler interiors in hot seasons and warm interior conditions in cold seasons. The Porotherm clay bricks are easy to use, economical, environmentally friendly, and it can be used for the construction of both non-load bearing walls and load bearing walls. The Porotherm bricks are low weight, durable, strong, and possess a satisfactory fire resistance. It can be used with dry mortar which eliminate the need for curing time. Various researchers throughout the world carried out numerous works to investigate and study the behaviour of AAC block and Porotherm brick. Those works were discussed in the review of literature. Different test were conducted in both blocks and its strength are noted. In this project, AAC block made of quartz sand (SiO2 with impurities), calcined calcium sulfate (or plaster of paris), lime (CaO), cement, water and aluminum powder. In this regular practices, cement (26%), fly ash (25%), lime (38%), gypsum (2%), Aluminium powder (9%). In this project cement reduced to 20% , and fly ash increased to 30%. Various strength test can be performed and it can be compared with AAC block and Porotherm brick