Study on the Components of Ash Bricks

Abstract

Bricks are considered as the backbone of the construction industry. They are perhaps the most important
building construction material. But the unlimited use of clay is harmful to society as all the bricks kilns in India depend
on good quality clay available from agricultural fields and presuming a weight of 3 kg. Per brick.Thetotal clay taken out
from the agricultural fields per day was over 300 million tonnes for 10,000 Crore bricks. Moreover, clay bricks available
in certain regions are poor in quality and costly which have forced engineer’s tolook for better material capable of
reducing the cost of construction. So the use of industrial waste products such as fly ash, for making bricks is
ecologically and economically advantageous since apart from saving precious top agricultural soil, it meets the social
objective of disposing industrial waste i.e. fly ash which otherwise is a pollutant and a nuisance. The ever increasing
volume of fly ash quantities in the world has not been remotely matched by its utilization. Environmental concerns have
been raised in some parts of the world where coal is the main power generatingresource and where bricks are also the
main building material. So far, few attempts at manufacturing bricks from more than 80% fly ash have been made. The
author believes that fly ash on its own is an excellent raw material for brick manufacturing which can be extensively used
in different construction materials. The objective of this paper is to study the components used in the manufacture of ash
bricks along with their properties and regions where they found.