Manufacture of Brick Titles From Local Raw Materials, N,NE Iraq

Abstract

This study was established to investigate the feasibility of using many types of local raw materials in Kurdistan for brick manufacturing. In this work, fourteen types of clay were selected from different localities in the region. The plasticity values of raw materials indicate the direct relation to mineralogical composition. The samples which contain a high percent of smectite and illite, have high to moderate plasticity, on the other hand the samples with high quartz content show low plasticity. The grain size analysis indicates the suitability of using raw materials form some localities in the studied area for manufacturing the perforate bricks, and others for roofing tiles and some others for thin wall products. A semi-dry method of forming eighty-four tiles under the load of 78kN/mm were adapted and fired at 850, 950 and 1050 C. for characteristics of the prepared tiles which are linear shrinkage, water absorption, bulk density and compressive strength are determined and found that some of these raw materials are suitable for manufacturing the solid and perforate bricks.