Effect of Different Types of Glasses as Fluxing Agent on the Sintering Temperature of Bricks

Abstract

ABSTRACTGenerally conventional bricks of Bangladesh are sintered at 950o to 1050°C temperature. These bricks have compressive strength between 2600 and 3000 psi. To lower the sintering temperature, waste glass powder (borosilicate glass, coloured glass and sodalime glass) was used in the production of bricks and sintering temperature was successfully lowered to 650°C. Among the glass powder used, sodalime glass produced the best result. Compressive strength of the brick made with 50% sodalime glass was around 31.36 MPa (4550 psi), which was much higher than that of conventional brick. Higher percentage of sodalime glass resulted in degraded quality of bricks. Other physical properties of bricks like bulk density, apparent porosity, water absorption and shrinkage were also better than those of conventional one. Longevity of bricks increases when they contain both glassy and crystalline phases. While conventional bricks possess no or less amount of glassy phase, XRD patterns of the prepared brick sample showed prominent glassy phase along with crystalline phase in it.