Utilization of Blended Waste Materials in Bricks

Cement is considered as the main raw material for the brick production. However, 15 excessive use of the cement has negative environment impact. Therefore, cement can be replaced by 16 using locally available waste materials and it can become a significant potential in the construction 17 industries for cleaner production. The objective of this research is to investigate the performance of 18 a brick when cement is replaced by the waste materials such as fly ash & palm oil fuel ash which 19 are available in Malaysia. To determine the performance of the bricks, the compressive strength test, 20 the water absorption test and the thermogravimetric analysis were carried out at different 21 percentage combinations of fly ash & palm oil fuel ash. The results reveal that both the fly ash & 22 palm oil fuel ash incorporated bricks satisfied the Class 1 and Class 2 load-bearing brick 23 requirements according to the Malaysian Standard MS76:1972 and the water absorption 24 requirements, according to the ASTM C55-11. The thermogravimetric analysis study confirms that 25 the Ca(OH)2 gradually decreases due to the increase of pozzolanic material contents (fly ash & palm 26 oil fuel ash). Moreover, these newly developed bricks cost less than the conventional bricks.