Abstract
In view of increasing concerns over nonrenewable resource depletion and waste management, this study aimed to apply the Taguchi optimization technique to determine the process conditions for producing bricks by incorporating thin-film transition liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) waste glass powder with reservoir sediments. An orthogonal array L16(45) was adopted, which consisted of five controllable four-level factors (i.e., cullet content, drying method, preheat time, sintering temperature, and error). Moreover, the analysis of variance method was used to explore the effects of the experimental factors on the density, water absorption, shrinkage ratio, loss on ignition, porosity, and compressive strength of the fired bricks. The microstructures of the fired specimens were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Then, large-scale production techniques for fired bricks containing recycled TFT-LCD glass cullet and reservoir sediments were developed in a commercially available tunnel kiln. The test results showed that the structure of the fired specimen was loose at a sintering temperature ranging from 900 to 950 °C. However, the fired specimen showed a significant densification at the sintering temperature of 1050 °C. In addition, the Taguchi method was found to be a feasible approach for optimizing the process condition of bricks using recycled TFT-LCD glass cullet and reservoir sediments and it significantly reduced the number of tests. Further, the characteristics of fired bricks developed in the tunnel kiln were in compliance with Chinese National Standards class Ι building bricks criteria.
Highlights
Bricks are mainly made by burning clay at high temperatures [1]
The main raw materials of clay bricks are natural resources such as clay or shale, but with the concept of sustainable development and the rising awareness of environmental protection, the exploitation or acquisition of these raw materials has become increasingly difficult in Taiwan
The characteristics of the resulting bricks were evaluated in terms of six performance parameters
Summary
Bricks are mainly made by burning clay at high temperatures [1]. The main raw materials of clay bricks are natural resources such as clay or shale, but with the concept of sustainable development and the rising awareness of environmental protection, the exploitation or acquisition of these raw materials has become increasingly difficult in Taiwan. There have been many related studies concerning the development of alternative sources of clay bricks [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30] These alternative materials include surplus soil from construction projects, reservoir sediments, water purification sludge, slag, inorganic sludge, stone waste, fly ash, palm oil fuel ash, incinerator ash and waste glass, sugarcane bagasse ash, etc. Many studies report the use of glass as a brick fluxing agent
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