Effect of Waste Glass on Properties of Burnt Clay Bricks

Abstract

The amount of waste glass found in solid waste is growing enormously as the modernization is growing. Waste glass deposited in landfills can be used in burnt clay bricks to overcome the problems faced by the brick kilns in Pakistan. In Pakistan, most of the bricks kilns are located near the agricultural areas; therefore, agriculture waste can be used as fuel for burning of bricks. This may result in lower strength of bricks due to lower maximum temperature obtained through agricultural waste. However, brick kilns located near cities use coal as fuel for burning of bricks which extracted from mines located thousands of miles away from brick kiln. This will require considerable transportation cost in order to bring this coal fuel for brick burning process in order to achieve higher temperature and consequently higher strength properties of bricks. In this study, glass waste was mixed with clay mixture in order to achieve higher strength properties of bricks prepared with low energy fuel (i.e. agricultural waste). Different proportions of waste glass from 0 to 20% at various temperatures i.e. 900, 950 and 1000 ^oC (temperature achieved through electrical oven) were investigated for the manufacturing of waste glass-clay bricks in the laboratory. Furthermore, specimens were also prepared in the industrial brick kilns for comparison purposes with the specimens prepared in the laboratory. Both laboratory and industrial brick kiln specimens were tested for their physical and mechanical properties. Results showed that increasing the waste glass content and burning temperature, the compressive and flexural strengths were increased, while the water absorption and weight per unit area were decreased. This study made an effort to investigate the effect of waste glass material in burnt clay bricks leading towards sustainable construction at low production cost