Physical and mechanical properties of fired clay bricks substituted with agricultural waste

Abstract

To fabricate low cost fired clay brick (FCB), rice husk ash (RHA) as agriculture waste has been successfully substituted into clay soil employing solid-state sintering process without pre-drying under natural heat process. Rice husk (RH) was first inverted into RHA as amorphous silica-based materials by burning at 800 °C for 5 hours. Then it was admixture with clay soil (CS) with the composition of RHA were varied accordingly, molded and sintered at 900 °C and 1000 °C for 2 hours. The sintered FCB was then studied through physical and mechanical through bulk density, linear shrinkage, water absorption, and mechanical force. Higher RHA content FCB is prone to shrinkage by having pronounced increment in bulk density and linear shrinkage, meanwhile ideal mechanical force (0.2 kN) was achieved by sintered at the highest temperature. Higher silica-based (40 wt%) appeared to absorbed less water in 24 hours at about 17.25%. Hence, this novel study has been promoted less time and energy consumption by reducing long drying process of molded bricks whilst utilizing an agriculture waste for an effective solution in handling the natural clay soil shortage sources by producing 3rd class classified FCB that is applied as a basic building block in a less heavy rainfall tabulation area.