CE- Civil Engineering Materials

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Building Materials
• Bricks and clay products
• Building stones
• Cement concrete
• Timber and wood products
• Metals and alloys
• Paints, varnishes, distempers
• Asphalt, bitumen and tar
• Plastics and fibers
• Glass
• Asbestos, adhesives and abrasives

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Bricks and Clay Products

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Topics under Bricks
• Introduction
• History
• Classification
• Ingredients
• Manufacturing
• Testing
• Characteristics & Defects
• Brick Masonry
• Brick Bonds

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Clay Products
• Clay Products
– Bricks
– Tiles
– Fire clays and fire bricks
– Terracotta
– Earthenware
– Clay pipes
• Bricks
– Block of tampered clay(bring to a desired consistency, texture, hardness, or other physical
condition by or as if by blending, admixing) or molded to desired shape and

size, sun dried and if required burnt to make it more

strong, hard and durable
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Bricks
• Commonly it is rectangular in shape
– Length = twice width of brick + thickness of mortar
– Height = multiple of width of brick
– Usual size available in Pakistan is 8¾ x 4¼ x 2 ¾
inches to make it 9 x 4.5 x 3 inches with mortar
• Bricks are most common form of structural clay
products; others being tiles, pipes, terracotta,
earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, and
majolica

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Bricks

Brick
Frog

Length 9 inch
Stretcher

Height 3 inch

Riser

Width 4.5 inch

Header

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Historical Development
 Began as low walls of stones or caked mud
 Sun-dried bricks - With the availability of fire became burnt
bricks
 Invention of kilns made mass production of bricks easy
 Limestone turned into lime mortar replaced mud as mortar
 In Mesopotamia, palaces and temples were built of stone and
sun-dried bricks in 4000 B.C.
 The Egyptians erected their temples and pyramids of stones by
3000 B.C.
 By 300 B.C., Greeks perfected their temples of limestone and
marble
 Romans made the first large-scale use of masonry arches and
roof vaults in their basilica (church), baths and aqueducts
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Historical Development
• Through the mid-1800s
– Primary Building Materials
• Late 1800s
– New Products Developed
– Ended Masonry’s Dominance
• 20th Century Developments
– Steel Reinforced Masonry
– High Strength Mortars
– High Strength Masonry Units
– Variety of Sizes, Colors, Textures & Coatings

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Civil Engineering Uses
• Construction of exterior and interior walls,
partitions and boundary walls
• Construction of piers, abutments
• Construction of footings
• Construction of miscellaneous load
bearing structures

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Classification of Bricks

Bricks

Sun Dried
Burnt
Katcha
Pucca
Un Burnt

Practice Usage Finish Manufacture Burning Strength

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Classification of Bricks
• Sun Dried, Un-burnt or Kacha Bricks
– After molding dried in sun, and are used in
the construction of temporary structures
which are not exposed to rains.
• Burnt or Pucca Bricks
– Burnt in an oven called kiln to provide
strength and durability

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Classification of Burnt Bricks
Burnt
Bricks

Practice Usage Finish Manufacture Burning Strength

Common Sand Hand Pale Bricks

1st Class Under Burnt
Class A
Brick Faced Made

Facing Machine Body Bricks

2nd Class Rustic Well Burnt
Class B
Brick Made

Engg Arch Bricks Classes

3rd Class Over Burnt
Brick 350 to 35

4th Class

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Classification of Burnt Bricks
Field Practice
• First Class Bricks
– Thoroughly burnt, deep red, cherry or copper color
– Straight edges, square corners, smooth surface
– Free from flaws, cracks, stones and nodules
– Uniform texture & ringing sound
– No scratch marks with fingernails
– Water absorption 12-15% of dry weight in 24 hours
– May have only slight efflorescence
– Crushing strength not less than 10.5 N/mm2
– Recommended for pointing, exposed face work, flooring and
reinforced brick work

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First Class Bricks

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Classification of Burnt Bricks
Field Practice
• Second Class Bricks
– Small cracks and distortions permitted
– Water absorption 16-20% of dry weight allowed
– Crushing strength not less than 7.0 N/mm2
– Recommended for all hidden work and centering of RBC
• Third Class Bricks, Pilla Bricks
– Under burnt, Soft and light colored producing dull sound
– Water absorption 25% of dry weight
– Recommended for temporary structures
• Fourth Class Bricks, Jhama, Khingar
– Over burnt and badly distorted in shape and size
– Brittle in nature
– Ballast of these bricks used for foundation and floors and as
road metal
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Second Class Bricks

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Third Class Bricks

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Classification of Burnt Bricks
Strength Based
• Classes
– 350 (35 N/mm2) 125 (12.5 N/mm2)
– 300 (30 N/mm2) 100 (10 N/mm2)
– 250 (25 N/mm2) 75 (7.5 N/mm2)
– 200 (20 N/mm2) 50 (5 N/mm2)
– 175 (17.5 N/mm2) 25 (2.5 N/mm2)
– 150 (15 N/mm2)
• Sub Classes
– Subclass A. Tolerance 0.3% in dimensions
– Subclass B. Tolerance 0.8% in dimensions
• Heavy Duty. Compressive strength > 40 N/mm2

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Classification of Burnt Bricks
• Basis of Usage
– Common Brick. General multi-purpose
– Facing Brick. Good appearance, color, textured,
durable under severe exposure
– Engineering Bricks. Strong, impermeable, smooth
and hard
• Basis of Finish
– Sand Faced Brick. Textured surface by sprinkling
sand inside mold
– Rustic. Mechanically textured finish
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Classification of Burnt Bricks
• Basis of manufacturing method
– Hand Made. Hand molded
– Machine Made. Wire cut, pressed and
molded bricks
• Basis of Burning
– Pale Bricks are under burnt
– Body Bricks are well burnt in central portion
of kiln
– Arch Bricks are over burnt. Also called clinker

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Ingredients of Good Brick Earth
• Brick earth is formed by the disintegration of igneous
rocks. On hydration it gives a clay deposit Al2O3. 2H2O
called kaolin.
• Alumina or clay 20-30% by weight
• Silica or sand 35-50% by weight
• Silt 20-35% by weight
• Remaining ingredients 1-2% by weight
– Lime (CaO)
– Magnesia (MgO)
– Iron oxides
– Alkalis (Sodium potash, etc)
• Water

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Ingredients of Good Brick Earth
• Silica, Sand – Present as free sand or silicate.
Its presence in clay produces hardness,
resistance to heat, durability and prevents
shrinkage and warping.
• Alumina – Fine grained mineral compound.
Moldable plastic when wet, becomes hard,
shrinks, warps and cracks when dry.
• Lime – Acts as binder for brick particles.
Reduces shrinkage when present in small
amount, excess causes the brick to melt and
lose shape.

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Ingredients of Good Brick Earth
• Magnesia – Provides darker yellow color
with iron. Usually less than 1%.
• Iron Oxide – Helps fusion of brick and
provides light yellow to red color to brick.
Should not be present as iron pyrites

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Ingredients of Good Brick Earth
• Harmful Substances
– Lime in excess or in lumps and pebbles, gravel, etc
– Iron Pyrites
– Alkalis in excess
– Organic Matter
– Carbonaceous Materials
• Additives
– Fly Ash – silicates help in strength development
– Sandy Loam – controls drying of plastic soil
– Rice Husk Ash – controls excessive shrinkage
– Basalt Stone Dust – modifies shaping, drying &
firing
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Operations in Manufacturing of Bricks
• Preparation of Brick Earth
– Un-soiling
– Digging
– Weathering
– Blending
– Tempering
• Molding of Bricks
• Drying of Bricks
• Burning of Bricks
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Manufacturing of Bricks
Preparation of Brick Earth
• Un-soiling – Removal of top 20 cm organic matter and
freeing from gravel, coarse sand, lime etc
• Digging – additives spread, soil excavated, puddled
(make muddy), watered and left over for weathering
• Weathering – heaps left for one month for oxidation
and washing away of excessive salts in rain
• Blending – sandy earth and calcareous earth mixed in
right proportions with right amount of water
• Tempering – kneading of blended soil with feet or with
a pug mill to improve plasticity and homogeneity

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Manufacturing of Bricks
Blending of Brick Clay

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Manufacturing of Bricks
Pug Mill

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Manufacturing of Bricks
• Molding – giving right shape
– Hand molding
• Ground molding. Molded on sand. No frog in bricks
• Table molding. Molded on stock boards with frog
– Machine molding
• Plastic method or Stiff-Mud process. Molded stiff clay bar
cut by wire into brick size pieces. Structural clay products
• Dry Press method. Moist powdered clay fed into machine
to be molded into bricks. Roof, floor and wall tiles
• Drying – Removing 7-30% moisture present during
molding stage. This controls shrinkage, fuel and
burning time. Natural open air driers in shades
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Hand Molding of Bricks

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Brick Mold

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Brick Molds

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Table Molding

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Strikes

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Extruded – Wire Cut Extruded – Smooth

Wood Mold
Extruded – Raked
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Method
of Drying
Bricks

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Drying Bricks

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Drying Bricks

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Manufacturing of Bricks
• Burning Stages
– Dehydration (400-650 °C). Water smoking stage in
which water from pores is driven off
– Oxidation (650-900 °C). Carbon eliminated and
ferrous iron oxidized to ferric form. Sulphur is
removed
– Vitrification (900-1250 °C). Mass converted into
glass like substance
• Incipient vitrification. Clay just softens to adherence
• Complete vitrification. Maximum shrinkage
• Viscous vitrification. Soft molten mass, loss in shape, glossy
structure on cooling

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Manufacturing of Burnt Bricks
• Clamp or Pazawah Burning
– Alternate layers of bricks and fuel encased in mud plaster.
– Fuel consists of grass, cow dung, litter, wood, coal dust
– Brick layer consists of four to five courses of brick
– 25,000 to 100,000 bricks in three months cycle
• Kiln Burning
– Intermittent kiln. Loaded, fired, cooled and unloaded before
next loading
– Continuous kiln. Bricks are loaded, fired, dried and cooled
simultaneously in different chambers. Example: Bull’s trench
kiln and Hoffman’s kiln

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Clamp
Burning

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Burning of Bricks

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Burning Fuel

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Hoffman’s
Continuous
Kiln
Preheating

Fuel
supply
Hot air leaving

Loading raw bricks

Cool air entering

Removing cooled bricks

Cooling
bricks

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 Preheating bricks
Loading raw bricks

Unloading cooled Cooling bricks

bricks

Bull’s
Trench
Kiln

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Miscellaneous Brick Types
• Heavy duty bricks
• Perforated bricks
• Paving bricks
• Hollow bricks
• Clay tiles
• Fire-clay or refractory bricks

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 a. Round ended
brick
b. Cant brick
c. Splay brick
d. Cornice brick
Special e. Compass brick
Forms f. Bull nosed brick

of g. Perforated brick
h. Hollow brick
Bricks i. Coping brick
j. Plinth level brick
k. Split brick (Queen
closer)
l. Split brick (King
closer)
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Specially Shaped Bricks

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Testing of Bricks
• Compressive strength Test.
• Specimen brick is immersed in water for 24 hours
• The frog of brick is filled flush with 1:3 mortar and brick
is stored under damp jute bags for 24 hours followed
by immersion in clean water for three days.
• The specimen is then placed between plates of
compression testing machine.
• Load is applied axially at uniform rate (14 N/mm2) till
failure. Maximum load at failure divided by average
area of bed face gives compressive strength.

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Testing of Bricks
• Absorption Test.
– 24 hours immersion cold water test.
• Dry bricks are oven dried at 105° ± 5° C
• Room temperature cooled bricks weighed W1
• Bricks immersed in water at 27° ± 2° C for 24 hrs
• Soaked bricks weighed W2
• Water absorption in % = (W2 – W1)/W1 x 100
– Five hours boiling water test
• Oven dried bricks weight : W1
• Bricks immersed in water and boiled for 5 hours and then
cooled down at room temperature in 16-19 hours
• Cooled down weight as W3
• Water absorption in % = (W3 – W1)/W1 x 100

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Testing of Bricks
• Warping Test. 10 bricks sample is used.
– Concave warping
– Convex warping
• Efflorescence Test. Ends of brick kept in a dish
containing 25 mm deep water at 20°– 30°C till all
water is absorbed
– Nil imperceptible efflorescence
– Slight deposit covers area < 10% of exposed area
– Moderate deposit covers exposed area 10% to 50%
– Heavy deposit covers exposed area > 50%
– Serious deposits are heavy and powder or flake away
the surface

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Characteristics of Good Bricks
• Size and shape – uniform size, rectangular
surfaces, parallel sides, sharp straight edges
• Color – uniform deep red or cherry
• Texture and compactness – uniform texture,
fractured surface should not show fissures,
holes, grits or lumps of lime
• Hardness and soundness – not scratch able by
finger nail. Produce metallic ringing sound
• Water absorption – should not exceed 20% wt
• Crushing strength – not less than 10.5 N/mm2
• Brick earth – free from stones, organic matter
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Defects of Bricks
• Over-burning. Burnt beyond complete vitrification
• Under-burning. Burnt less not to cause complete vitrification
• Bloating. Spongy swollen mass over the surface due to excess
carbonaceous matter and sulphur
• Black Core. Due to bituminous matter or carbon
• Efflorescence. Grey of white crystallization of alkalis on the
surface, due to water absorption
• Checks or Cracks. Due to lumps of lime getting in contact with
water
• Spots. Dark sulphur spots due to iron sulphides
• Blisters. Broken blisters due to air entrapped during molding
• Laminations. Thin lamina produced due to air entrapped in
voids of clay
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Miscellaneous Clay Products
• Terracotta. Ornamental, impervious, hard clay
– Porous terracotta. Clay plus sawdust or cork
– Polished terracotta. Glazed architectural clay
• Porcelain. High grade, white, zero water absorption and glazed
material of clay, kaolin, quartz and feldspar
– Soft porcelain
– Hard porcelain
• Stoneware. Colored porcelain with silica and alumina. Flooring
tiles
• Earthenware. Drain pipes, lavatory fittings, light partition walls
• Majolica. Italian earthenware coated with opaque white enamel,
ornamented with metallic colors
• Glazing
– Transparent glazing. Sodium chloride used while burning
– Lead glazing. Burned items dipped in lead oxide solution
– Opaque glazing. Borax, kaolin, chalk, color, feldspar and lead oxide fired.
Resulting molten glass poured in water to give shattered look
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Brick Masonry
• Brick sides
– Header
– Stretcher
• Brick Bonds
– English
• Brick Masonry Patterns
– Checker
– Herringbone
– Basket weave
– Flemish

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 Basic Brickwork Terminology

Head
Joint

Bed
Joint

Course - horizontal layer of brick

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 Basic Brickwork Terminology

Header - Bonds two wythes together

Wythe: vertical layer 1 unit thick

Rowlock -
laid on face,
end visible

Stretcher - long dimension horizontal

& face parallel to the wall

Soldier - Laid on its end, face parallel

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Joint Color that “Blends” w/ Brick Color
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 Concave Joints

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 Raked Joints

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 Simulated Precast Concrete Lintel
(actually a steel lintel supports the assembly)

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 Arch

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