BRICKS

It is a regular sized rectangular unit, used for most of the building works. It is used as substitute for
stone, where stone is not available.

Ingredients of Good Brick Earth

A good brick earth mainly consists of silica (sand) and alumina (clay).

Ingredients of Good Brick

Earth

Alumina (Clay)

Silica (Sand)

Lime

Oxide of Iron

Magnesia

They are mixed in such a proportion that the resulting mass with water is a plastic mass that could be
easily moulded and dried without undergoing shrinkage, cracking or warping.

Alumina (Clay)
  Alumina is the chief constituent of every kind of clay

 A good brick earth should contain between 20 to 30 % of alumina

 Alumina provides plasticity to earth, so that it can be moulded

 If bricks contain excess amount of alumina and insufficient sand they shrink, crack and warp on
drying and burning

Silica (Sand)

 The percentage of silica in a good brick earth should lie between 50 to 60 %

 Presence of silica prevents cracking, shrinking and warping of raw bricks

 Excess amount of silica destroys the cohesion between particles and makes the bricks brittle and
weak

 Hence, durability of the bricks depends largely on the proper proportion of silica & alumina in
brick earth

Lime

 Small quantity of lime in brick earth is desirable

 Slight amount of lime in a very finely powdered form acts as a flux and causes silica to fuse
slightly at kiln temperature

 Such slightly fused sand acts as a very hard cementing material and bricks of large strength and
durability are obtained

 Lime present in small proportion also prevents shrinkage of raw bricks

 Excess amount of lime causes the brick to melt and its shape is lost

 If lumps of lime are present, they are converted in to quick lime after burning

 The formed quick lime slakes and expands due to moisture and causes splitting of bricks into
pieces

Oxide of Iron

 Small quantity of oxide of iron (about 5 to 6 %) is desirable in good brick earth

 It also helps silica to fuse at comperatively low temperature like lime

 The color of bricks depends on the proportion of iron oxide present in the brick earth

 The bricks having very small amount of iron oxide are yellow in color
  Too much iron oxide makes the bricks dark, blue or blackish

 Iron also increases the durability and impermeability of the bricks

Magnesia

 A small proportion of it decreases the shrinkage and gives yellow tint to the bricks

 Excess amount of magnesia causes bricks to decay

Proportion of the Ingredients of Typical Good Brick Earth

Lime & Organic

Ingredients Alumina Silica Iron Oxide
Magnesia Matter

Percentage 20-30 % 50-60 % 6-10 % 4-8% 3-6 %

Harmful Ingredients of Brick Earth

Harmful Ingredients of Brick Earth

• Lime
• Pebbles of stone & Gravel
• Iron Pyrites
• Alkalies
• Organic Matter
• Presence of Reh or Kallar
Lime

 Presence of lime in large amount is harmful

 Calcium Carbonate present in lumps is converted to quick lime (CaO) after burning of bricks

 When these bricks come into contact with moisture, quick lime slakes and causes disruption of
bricks because of its expansion

 Excess amount of lime also causes the brick to melt and its shape is lost

Pebbles of Stone and Gravel

 They do not allow thorough mixing of the erth and the bricks containing pebbles and gravels are
considered very week

 Such bricks cannot be broken at the desired section and they break very irregularly

Iron Pyrites

 Presence of iron pyrites causes crystallization and disintegration of bricks during burning

 It causes discoloration of bricks in the form of black slag

Alkalies

 The alkalies are mainly salts of sodium and potassium

 Alkalies act as flux in the kiln and cause fusion, warping and twisting of the bricks

 Alkalies present in bricks absorb moisture from the atmosphere

 Such bricks when used for masonry work cause deposition of white powder on the surface.
Because when drying; the salts, which have come to the surface with moisture, get deposited

 This action is known as efflorescence, which seriously spoils the appearance of the building

Organic Matter

 Presence of organic matter and vegetation in the brick earth render the bricks porous

Presence of Reh or Kallar

 These consists of sodium chloride, sodium carbonate and sodium sulphate

  These elements re-crystalize after burning of bricks and deposit on the surface of masonry in
form of whitish spots

 This causes pealing off the plaster and bricks and ultimately leads to the failure of structure

Broad Classification of Bricks

Classification of Bricks

• First Class Bricks

• Second Class Bricks
• Third Class Bricks
• Over Burnt or Jhama Bricks
• Under Burnt or Pilla bricks

First Class Bricks (S-grade, BDS 208:2002)

Properties

 Size of the burnt brick is exactly 9.5” x 4.5” x 3”

 The brick earth is free from small pebbles, lime lumps, organic matter and sodium salts

 Well burnt

 Color is uniform yellow or red

 Surface is regular and sides are parallel, edges are sharp and at right angles to each other

 Have firm, compact and uniform texture

 No sign of efflorescence

 Crushing strength more than 280 kg/cm2 (mean value) and 245 kg/cm2 (individual minimum
value)

 Surface is so hard that finger nails are not able to make any impression on its surface

 Does not absorb water more than 10 % of its own dry weight after immersion of 24 hours in cold
water
  Metallic ringing sound emits when two bricks are struck against each other

 Does not break when it is dropped on a hard ground from a height of 1 meter

Uses

 Used in all works of long durability, say 100 years

 Used for buildings that expose to corrosive environment

 Used as coarse aggregate of concrete

Second Class Bricks (A-grade, BDS 208:2002)

Properties

 Well burnt or slightly over burnt

 Color is uniform yellow or red

 Generally regular and uniform shape, size and color

 Uniform texture

 No appreciable sign of efflorescence

 Ringing sound emits when two bricks are struck against each other

 Does not absorb water more than 15 % of its own dry weight after immersion of 24 hours in cold
water

 Crushing strength more than 175 kg/cm2 (mean value) and 154 kg/cm2 (individual minimum
value)

 No finger nail impression

Uses

 Used in less important structures

 Used for general purposes

Third Class Bricks (B-grade, BDS 208:2002)

Properties

 Generally under burnt

  Soft and light red colored

 Size and shape are not regular

 Intensive efflorescence

 Texture is not uniform

 Emit a dull sound when struck against each other

 Does not absorb water more than 20 % of its own dry weight after immersion of 24 hours in cold
water

 Crushing strength more than 140 kg/cm2 (mean value) and 105 kg/cm2 (individual minimum
value)

 Leave finger nail impression

Uses

 Not used for important and permanent works

 Mostly used for temporary works

Over Burnt or Jhama Bricks

 Over burnt

 Shape vitrified and distorted

Uses

 Can not be used in construction works

 Used for making aggregate for lime concrete for foundation

 As a road material

Under Burnt or Pilla Bricks

 Half burnt

 Yellow color

 Low strength

Uses

 Crushed to powder form and used as surkhi

Manufacture of Bricks

• Preparation of Clay
• Pugging or Tempering of the Clay
Manufacture • Moulding of Bricks
of • Drying of Bricks
Bricks • Burning of Bricks

Preparation of Clay or Earth

 Preparation of clay involves operations like removing the top loose earth, then digging, cleaning,
weathering and blending of the earth

 After removing the top unsuitable soil, the clay is dug either by manual labor or by power
excavators

 Dug out clay is spread on the leveled ground and all the pebbles, gravel, kankar, vegetable
matter etc. are removed from the clay

 The clay is left exposed to atmosphere for softening, known as weathering of clay

 Digging the earth before rains is advantageous as full monsoon can be utilized for weathering

 After weathering, the earth is chemically analyzed and if there is any deficiency of any
ingredient, it is mixed with the earth

 Now preparation of clay is completed

Pugging or Tempering of Clay

 Tempering or pugging of clay involves breaking up of the prepared clay, watering and kneading
till the earth becomes a homogeneous mass
  Water is added to clay in required quantity and the whole mass is kneaded under the feet of
men or cattle

 Where good bricks are required to be manufactured on a large scale, tempering of clay is usually
done by pug-mill

Moulding of Bricks

 After tempering of clay, bricks should be moulded as soon as possible; otherwise pugged clay
may become stiff and moulding of bricks may become difficult

 The bricks can be moulded by

 Hand moulding

 Machine moulding

 Moulds are rectangular boxes without any top and bottom. They may be made of steel or
timber

Drying of Bricks

Wet bricks have to be dried before they are fed for burning in the kilns. The objectives of drying the
bricks are

 To remove as much of moisture from the bricks as possible, so as to save time and fuel during
the burning

 To avoid the chances of cracking and distortion of bricks during the burning

 To increase the mechanical strength of the bricks, so that they can be handled and stocked
without any damage to the bricks

Burning of Bricks

 Burning of bricks is a very important operation in the manufacture of bricks

 It imparts strength and hardness to the bricks and makes them dense and durable

 When temperature of bricks reaches at 650° C, while burning, water of crystallization is

removed
  At about 1100° C, the two main constituents of brick, silica and alumina, combine with each
other and bricks become dense and strong

 Bricks are burnt either in clamps or in kilns

Kilns

The kiln is a system, designed more scientifically, to burn the bricks in very large numbers. Two types of
kilns are generally used

 Intermittent kiln

 Continuous kiln

Intermittent Kiln

 Operation of burning the bricks is not continuous

 The kiln is loaded, then fired, then allowed to cool and lastly unloaded

 This completes one cycle of operations

Disadvantages

 Supply of bricks is intermittent

 Quality of burnt bricks is not uniform. Bricks near bottom are over burnt and those near top are
under burnt

 There is wastage of fuel as kiln is to be cooled down every time after burning

Continuous Kiln

 Continuous in operation and ensures continuous supply of burnt bricks

 All operations like loading, firing, cooling and unloading are carried out simultaneously in these
kilns

 Mostly used Continuous Kilns are

 Bull’s Trench Kiln

 Hoffman’s Kiln

 Tunnel Kiln
Hoffman’s Kiln

 This kiln is circular in plan

 The chimney is placed at the centre and twelve chambers are arranged around the chimney
forming a circular ring

 Each chamber has a door in the external wall which is used for loading and unloading of bricks

 All the chambers have communicating doors in the walls separating each other and all the
chambers have a connection with chimney with radial flues

 The kiln has permanent roof but fuel holes are provided to drop the fuel in the kiln from top

 In this kiln, all the chambers are subjected to loading, drying and pre-heating, burning, cooling
and unloading operations successively and all these operations remain going on all the time
simultaneously

All the twelve chambers of the kiln may be functioning as follows

Chamber no. Operation involved

1 Loading

2, 3, 4, 5 Drying & Pre-heating

6, 7 Burning
8, 9, 10, 11 Cooling
12 Unloading

The circulation of flue gas with this arrangement

 Cool air enters the kiln through open doors of chambers 1 and 12

 This cool air passes through chambers 11, 10, 9, and 8 and in course of time gets heated, while
performing cooling of the hot-burnt bricks in these chambers
  Now this heated air or gas enter the burning chambers 7 and 6, where it performs the burning
of bricks. Fuel is dropped in these chambers from the top

 After performing burning of bricks, hot gas is led to chambers 5, 4, 3 and 2 where they perform
drying and pre-heating of freshly loaded bricks

 The communicating door of chamber 2 is closed and cooled gas is led to chimney through the
radial flue of this chamber

 Care should be taken that all radial flues except of chamber 2 remain closed and all
communicating doors except in the wall between chambers 1 and 2 remain open for this
particular arrangement. Outer loading and unloading doors remain closed except for the two
chambers, which are being loaded and unloaded

After the burning of bricks of chamber 7 and 6, the pattern of circulation will be as follows
 Chamber no. Operation involved

12 Loading

1, 2, 3, 4 Drying & Pre-heating

5, 6 Burning

7, 8, 9, 10 Cooling

11 Unloading

Advantages of Hoffman’s Kiln

 There is perfect control on the heat

 Supply of bricks is continuous and regular

 Pre-heating of the bricks by hot gases before they escape into the atmosphere, considerably
reduce the consumption of the fuel

 Bricks are burnt evenly and thus bricks of good quality are produced

 Percentage of first class bricks is the highest

Disadvantages of Hoffman’s Kiln

 Initial cost of construction is high

 This kiln requires regular demand of the bricks which may not be possible

Desirable Characteristics of Good Bricks

 The color of good brick should be uniform. It may be deep red or yellow

 Bricks should be uniform in shape with all its edges sharp, straight and at right angles to each
other

 Size of the bricks should be standard (24cm x 11.5cm x 7cm) as prescribed by Bangladesh
Standards (BDS, 2002)

 The bricks should have fine, dense, compact and uniform texture.
  First class bricks should not absorb water more than 10 % of its own dry weight after immersion
of 24 hours in cold water

 Crushing strength more than 280 kg/cm2 (mean value) and 245 kg/cm2 (individual minimum
value) (BDS, 2002)

 The bricks should be so hard that finger nails should not be able to make any impression on its
surface when scratched

 Two bricks when struck against each other should emit ringing sound

 Bricks should be soundproof and also of low thermal conductivity

 Bricks should not break when dropped flat on a hard ground from a height of 1 meter

Tests for Bricks

 Absorption of Water Test

 Crushing Strength Test

 Hardness Test

 Shape and Size Test

 Soundness Test

 Test for Presence of Soluble Salts

Coloring of Bricks

 The color of the bricks depends upon the following factors

 Burning temperature of bricks

 Type of fuel used during burning

 Chemical composition of the brick earth

 Nature of sand used during moulding

 Degree of dryness achieved before burning

 Amount of air admitted to the kiln during burning

 The color attained by any of the above causes is known as the natural color of the brick
  Bricks can be colored artificially also

 By dipping (immersing in coloring mixture)

 By mixing appropriate coloring material during preparation of brick earth/clay

Fire Bricks or Refractory Bricks

 These bricks are manufactured from specially designed earth, so that after burning, they can
withstand very high temperatures without affecting its shape, size and strength

 They are used for lining of chimneys, furnaces etc., where usual temperatures are expected to
be very high