Utilisation of non-metallic mineral wastes for eco-friendly bricks / Muhammad Redzwan Mohamad Raffe

One of the industry that shows rapid growth in production output due to Economy Transformation Program (ETP) is tiles manufacturing industries. As the production tiles manufacturing industries continue to grow, the amount of waste and by-product generated from the manufacturing process also increased. The waste and by-product generated from the manufacturing process must be disposed in an environmentally sound manner and any failure will create nuisance and major problem to the environment. The main objective of this study is to investigate the potential use of ceramic dust (CD) and marble dust (MD) (wastes and by-product generated from ceramic and marble tile industry) in term of its engineering performances. Laboratory trials involving compacted cylindrical specimens of 50mm 0 and 100mm height were carried up to identify the optimum mixture composition prior to brick fabrication. CD and MD on its own or combination with siliceous material known as laterite soil (LS) were stabilised with Portland cement (PC) and hydrated lime (HL) on its own or combination with a by-product from steel industry, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). The compacted cylindrical specimens were fabricated at 10% and 20% dosage of stabilisers concentration and air cured for 7, 28 and 60 days before being tested for compressive strength and water absorption. In order to meet the industrial specifications, only cylindrical specimens which passed compressive strength value of 25,000 kN/m2 were selected to be fabricated to ensure the bricks produced will achieve higher compressive strength values or meet the minimum requirement of compressive strength for common brick. The brick specimens sizes of 215mm x 102.5mm x 65mm were fabricated at Majpadu Bricks Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia. Series of engineering performance tests were carried out to examine the compressive strength, rate of water absorption, degree of efflorescence and thermal conductivity of brick specimens. The results clearly demonstrate promising engineering performance within the acceptable engineering standards for clay masonry units. Hence, suggests that CD and MD has a bright potential to be utilised as alternative renewable raw material for unfired brick which will promoting technological and environmental advantage of using non-metallic mineral wastes from ceramic and marble industry