BRICKS
Introduction
Brick is one of the oldest building material which continues to be a
most popular and leading construction material because of being
cheap, durable and easy to handle and work with.
Brick may be made of burnt clay or mixture of sand and lime or of
Portland cement concrete.
Clay bricks are commonly used since these are economical and
easily available.
Clay bricks are used for building-up exterior and interior walls,
partitions, piers, footings and other load bearing structures.
The length, width and height of a brick are interrelated as below:
Length of brick = 2 × width of brick + thickness of mortar
Height of brick = width of brick
Size of a standard brick (also known as modular brick) should be
19 × 9 × 9 cm and 19 × 9 × 4 cm. When placed in masonry the
19 × 9 × 9 cm brick with mortar becomes 20 × 10 × 10 cm.
The bricks available in most part of the country still are 9" × 4 1/2"
× 3" and are known as field bricks. Weight of such a brick is 3.0 kg.
An indent called frog, 1–2 cm deep, is provided for 9 cm high bricks.
The size of frog should be 10 × 4 × 1 cm. The purpose of providing
frog is to form a key for holding the mortar and therefore, the
bricks are laid with frogs on top.
Frog is not provided in 4 cm high bricks and extruded bricks.
Ingredients of Good Brick Earth
Ingredient Percentage
Silica 50-60%
Alumina 20-30%
Lime 10%
Magnesia <1%
Ferric oxide <7%
Alkalis <10%
Functions of Various Ingredients:
Silica:
It enables the brick to retain its shape and imparts durability,
prevents shrinkage and warping.
Excess of silica makes the brick brittle and weak on burning.
It is added to decrease shrinkage in burning and to increase the
refractoriness of low alumina clays.
Alumina:
It absorbs water and renders the clay plastic.
If alumina is present in excess of the specified quantity, it
produces cracks in brick on drying.
Clays having exceedingly high alumina content are likely to be
very refractory.
Lime:
Reduces the shrinkage on drying.
Causes silica in clay to melt on burning and thus helps to bind it.
Excess of lime causes the brick to melt and the brick looses its
shape.
Red bricks are obtained on burning at considerably high
temperature (more than 800°C) and buff-burning bricks are made
by increasing the lime content.
Magnesia:
It affects the colour and makes the brick yellow, in burning.
It causes the clay to soften at slower rate than lime and reduces
warping.
Ferric Oxide:
Gives red colour on burning when excess of oxygen is available
and dark brown or even black colour when oxygen available is
insufficient.
It improves impermeability and durability.
Gives strength and hardness.
Classification of Bricks
Based on field practice:
First class bricks:
These are thoroughly burnt and are of deep red, cherry or
copper colour.
The surface should be smooth and rectangular, with parallel,
sharp and straight edges and square corners.
These should be free from flaws, cracks and stones and should
have uniform texture.
No impression should be left on the brick when a scratch is
made by a finger nail.
The fractured surface of the brick should not show lumps of
lime.
A metallic or ringing sound should come when two bricks are
struck against each other.
Water absorption should be 12–15% of its dry weight when
immersed in cold water for 24 hours.
The crushing strength of the brick should not be less than 10
N/mm2.
Uses: First class bricks are recommended for pointing, exposed
face work in masonry structures, flooring and reinforced brick
work.
Second class bricks:
These have the same requirements as the first class bricks except
that
Small cracks and distortions are permitted.
A little higher water absorption of about 16–20% of its dry
weight is allowed.
The crushing strength should not be less than 7.0 N/mm2.
Uses: Second class bricks are recommended for all important or
unimportant hidden masonry works and centering of
reinforced brick and reinforced cement concrete (RCC)
structures.
Third class bricks:
These are underburnt. They are soft and light-coloured
producing a dull sound when struck against each other.
Water absorption is about 25 per cent of dry weight.
Uses : It is used for building temporary structures.
Fourth class bricks:
these are overburnt and badly distorted in shape and size and
are brittle in nature.
Uses: The ballast of such bricks is used for foundation and floors
in lime concrete and road metal.
Based on strength:
On the basis of use:
Common Bricks
Facing Bricks
Engineering Bricks
On the basis of finish:
Sand-faced Bricks
Rustic Bricks
Sand-faced bricks
Rustic bricks
On the Basis of manufacture:
Hand-made Bricks
Machine-made Bricks
On the basis of burning:
Pale Bricks
Body Bricks
Arch Bricks
On the basis of types:
Perforated
Solid
Cellular
Hollow
Characteristics of Good Brick
The bricks should be table-moulded, well burnt in kilns, copper-
coloured, free from cracks and with sharp and square edges. The
colour should be uniform and bright.
The bricks should be uniform in shape and should be of standard
size.
The bricks should give a clear metallic ringing sound when struck
with each other.
The bricks when broken or fractured should show a bright
homogeneous and uniform compact structure free from voids.
The brick should not absorbs water more than 20% by weight, when
soaked in water for a period of 24 hours.
The bricks should be sufficiently hard. No impression should be left
on brick surface, when it is scratched with finger nail.
The bricks should not break into pieces when dropped flat on hard
ground from a height of about one meter.
The bricks should have low thermal conductivity and they should be
sound proof.
The bricks, when soaked in water for 24 hours, should not show
deposits of white salt when allowed to dry in shade.
No bricks should have the crushing strength below 3.50 N/mm2.
Manufacture of Bricks
Preparation of Brick Earth
Moulding
Drying
Burning
Brick
Preparation of Brick Earth:
It consists of the following operations:
Unsoiling
Digging
Weathering
Blending
Tempering
Unsoiling:
The soil used for making building bricks should be free of
gravel, coarse sand (practical size more than 2 mm), lime
and kankar particles, organic matter, etc.
About 20 cm of the top layer of the earth, normally
containing stones, pebbles, gravel, roots, etc., is removed
after clearing the trees and vegetation.
Digging:
After removing the top layer of the earth, proportions of
additives such as fly ash, sandy loam, rice husk ash, stone
dust, etc. should be spread over the plane ground surface
on volume basis.
The soil mass is then manually excavated, puddled,
watered and left over for weathering and subsequent
processing. The digging operation should be done before
rains.
Digging of soil
Weathering:
Stones, gravels, pebbles, roots, etc. are removed from the
dug earth and the soil is heaped on level ground in layers
of 60–120 cm and exposed to weather for at least one
month to develop homogeneity in the soil mass and also
to eliminate impurities which get oxidized.
The soil should be turned over at least twice and it should
be ensured that the entire soil is wet throughout the
period of weathering.
The plasticity and strength of the clay are improved by
exposing the clay to weather.
Blending:
The earth is then mixed with sandy-earth and calcareous-
earth in suitable proportions to modify the composition
of soil.
Moderate amount of water is mixed so as to obtain the
right consistency for moulding. The mass is then mixed
uniformly with spades.
Excessive moisture content may effect the size and shape
of the finished brick.
Spade
Tempering:
Tempering consists of kneading the earth with feet so as
to make the mass stiff and plastic. This will ensure
homogeneity in the mass of clay for subsequent
processing.
For manufacturing good brick, tempering is done in pug
mills and the operation is called pugging.
Kneading
Pug Mill
Moulding:
It is a process of giving a required shape to the brick from
the prepared brick earth.
Moulding may be carried out by hand or by machines.
The process of moulding of bricks may be the soft-mud
(hand moulding), the stiff-mud (machine moulding) or the
drypress process (moulding using maximum 10 per cent
water and forming bricks at higher pressures).
Hand moulding:
Ground moulding:
Table Moulding:
Moulding Table
Machine Moulding:
Plastic Method:
Dry Press Method:
Drying:
The object of drying is to remove the moistre to control
the shrinkage and save fuel and time during burning.
Green bricks contain about 7–30% moisture depending
upon the method of manufacture.
The drying shrinkage is dependent upon pore spaces within
the clay and the mixing water.
Drying of raw bricks
The moisture content is brought down to about 3 per cent
under exposed conditions within three to four days. Thus,
the strength of the green bricks is increased and the bricks
can be handled safely.
Clay products can be dried in open air driers or in artificial
driers.
Artificial drying of bricks
Burning:
Clamp Burning (Temporary Structure)
Kiln Burning (Permanent Structure)
Intermittent kiln
Continuous kiln
Clamp Burning:
The bricks and fuel are placed in alternate layers. The
amount of fuel is reduced successively in the top layers.
Each brick tier consists of 4–5 layers of bricks. Some space is
left between bricks for free circulation of hot gasses.
After 30 per cent loading of the clamp, the fuel in the lowest
layer is fired and the remaining loading of bricks and fuel is
carried out hurriedly.
The top and sides of the clamp are plastered with mud. Then
a coat of cowdung is given, which prevents the escape of
heat.
The production of bricks is 2–3 lacs.
This process yields about 60 per cent first class bricks.
Clamp Burning
Kiln Burning:
The kiln used for burning bricks may be underground, e.g.
Bull’s trench kiln or overground, e.g. Hoffman’s kiln.
These may be rectangular, circular or oval in shape.
When the process of burning bricks is continuous, the kiln is
known as continuous kiln, e.g. Bull’s trench and Hoffman’s
kilns.
If the process of burning bricks is discontinuous, the kiln is
known as intermittent kiln.
Bull’s trench Kiln