Physical Properties of Clay and Bricks in Nyagatare, Rwanda

Abstract

The proportion of Rwanda population that will be living in urban centres will be 35% by the year 2017. The extra buildings will definitely be made of bricks because of its abundance in the country. The objectives of the study were: firstly, to determine brick production at the site, secondly, was to determine depth of borrow pits for clays. Thirdly to determine Atterberg limits for clay at 300mm and 500 mm depths. Lastly, was to determine percentage losses in bricks. Methodology involved use of questionnaires to determine brick production and losses, measurements of depths of clay borrow pits and laboratory work for Atterberg limits of clay. The results showed that the cumulative brick production at the site was 58.12 million bricks during 2000 to 2013 period with average production of 4.15± 0.55 bricks per year. The depth of borrow pits varied from 29 cm to 43 cm with an average depth of 34 cm. The values of Liquid Limit, Plastic Limit and Plastic index were 49.15%, 19.78% and 29.37%, respectively at 500mm depth. There were more bricks that were broken during burning than drying. The average losses for the study site were 27.13 ± 3.67% during the brick manufacturing process.