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Composition of Bricks

Bricks are made primarily from clay and sand. Clay provides plasticity for shaping while sand provides strength, uniform texture, and prevents cracking. Additional key ingredients include iron oxide for color and durability, lime as a catalyst for fusing silica at high temperatures, and magnesia for reducing shrinkage. Harmful ingredients to avoid include excess lime or alkalis which can cause melting and warping, and organic matter or stones which compromise strength and density.

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38 views

Composition of Bricks

Bricks are made primarily from clay and sand. Clay provides plasticity for shaping while sand provides strength, uniform texture, and prevents cracking. Additional key ingredients include iron oxide for color and durability, lime as a catalyst for fusing silica at high temperatures, and magnesia for reducing shrinkage. Harmful ingredients to avoid include excess lime or alkalis which can cause melting and warping, and organic matter or stones which compromise strength and density.

Uploaded by

Riya Jaiswal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Composition of Bricks

 Function of Ingredient - Bricks are rectangular units of construction material.


Bricks are used in masonry construction, walls, and pavements. It is used as a substitute of
stone, where the stone is not readily available. Brick chips are often used as coarse aggregate
in the concrete mix.

 Percentage of Constituents of Brick –


There are six major ingredients of brick. The general percentage of these ingredients in
brick is given below:

 Ingredient Percentage in brick

Silica (SiO2) 50 – 60%

Alumina (Al2O3) 30%

Iron Oxide (Fe2O3) 8%

Magnesia (MgO) 5%

Lime(CaO) 1%

Organic Matter 1%
 Chief Ingredients of Brick and Their Functions -

Silica (Sand) and Alumina (Clay), these two are the most prominent ingredients
in brick clay. When mixed with water in proper proportions, it gains plasticity.
The plastic mass can be easily moulded and dried. It should not go through
cracking, shrinkage or warping.

o Alumina

Alumina is the main constituent of clay. It acts as a cementing material in raw


brick. Brick clay is plastic due to the presence of alumina. This plasticity
ensures that bricks can be moulded. An excess amount of alumina in clay
may cause the bricks to shrink, warp or crack on drying and burning as any
other cementing material.

Figure: Clay for Brick formation

o Silica

Good quality bricks contain 50-60% silica. It is present in both free and
combined form. As frees sand, it remains mechanically mixed with clay. In
combined form, it reacts with alumina to form aluminosilicates. Silica prevents
raw bricks from cracking, shrinking and warping. The higher the proportion of
sand, the more and shapely and uniform in texture will be the brick. Although,
excess silica destroys cohesion between the brick clay particles and makes
brick brittle and weak. The durability of bricks largely depends upon the
proper proportion of silica and alumina.
Figure: Sand

o Lime

Bricks should contain a little amount of finely powdered lime. It enables silica
(of a required portion) to melt at the furnace temperature of 1650oC and binds
the particles of brick together resulting in strong and durable bricks. At about
1100o C, lime acts as a catalyst to elevate the furnace temperature to 1650oC at
which silica fuses. This slightly fused silica works as a strong cementing
material. Excess lime in brick clay will cause vitrification of bricks. It causes
bricks to melt, as more than the required amount of silica will fuse. The bricks
then lose their shape and become disfigured.

Figure: Powdered Lime


o Iron Oxide

Bricks contain a small quantity of Iron Oxide. Iron Oxide acts a flux like lime,
thus helps silica to fuse at low temperature. It imparts a red colour to bricks
upon burning. Iron also increases the durability and impermeability of the
bricks.

Figure: Iron Oxide powder

o Magnesia

A small proportion of magnesium decreases shrinkage and gives a yellow tint to


the bricks. An excess amount of it causes bricks to decay.

 Harmful Ingredients of Brick

o Lime

Excess lime melts the bricks and disfigures it. If CaCO3 exists (in the purest
form, i.e., if it contains at least 95% CaO) in lime-lump in brick clay, it converts
into quicklime on burning. When these bricks come in contact with water,
quicklime slakes and expands. And causes disintegration of bricks.

o Alkalis

Alkalis are mainly salt of Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K). It acts as a flux in
the kiln and causes fusion, warping, and twisting of bricks. Alkalis absorb
moisture from the atmosphere and cause dampness & efflorescence in
bricks (because of the presence of hygroscopic salts, e.g., CaCl2, MgCl2,
etc.).
o Pebbles, Stones & Gravels

Their presence does not allow thorough mixing of earth, thus the bricks
produced are weaker. Such bricks cannot be broken at the desired section and
they break very irregularly.

Figure: Pebbles, Stones, and Gravels

o Iron Pyrites (FeS)

Iron Pyrites causes crystallization & disintegration of bricks while burning. It


discolors bricks in the form of black slag.

o Organic Matter

Organic matter in bricks makes bricks porous resulting in low density and
weaker bricks.

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