Preparation foam brick from Iraqi local clay

Abstract

Background: In this present study for preparing foam brick by utilization of local kaolin clay and foaming agent for building and, thermal insulation and construction applications. Methods: This paper deals with the development of foam bricks by independent several of variables are (clay mixture ratio, foam solution ratio, forming mixture ratio and firing temperature), so it has been fixing one of this variable randomly and change another gradually regular and then optimum value to return randomly and thus after that select optimum values of these parameter to produce foam bricks this variables are clay mixture ratio (Mullit:Kaolin ratio is 20:80,40:60 and 60:40 weight ratio), Agent solution ratio (foam agent:water ratio is 0.5:20 ,1:20,1.5:20, 2.5:20,3.5:20 and 4.5:20 weight ratio) and forming mixture ratio (clay mixture:foam solution ratio is 45.5:54.5, 48.87:51.13, 51.14:48.86, 53.51:46.49 and 55.6:44.4 weight ratio). Results: Porosity, thermal conductivity and compression strength has been investigated at (9050,1050)ºC, SEM and XRD also carried out at specimen firing at 950ºC .the results show that optimum foam bricks obtained with 60:40 weight ratio of mullite:kaolin, 1.5:20 and 2.5:20 weight ratio of agent : water respectively and forming mixture ratio was (51.14:48.86 )at 950ºC. Conclusion: The specimens prepared in this way have apparent porosity (as high as 0.46%), exhibiting considerable compressive strength (exceeding 5MPa) and low thermal conductivity (about 0.36 (W/m k)).