PS.

04/08/2017

PUSAT PENGAJIAN SISWAZAH

CENTRE FOR GRADUATE STUDIES
UNIVERSITI TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA

PROGRESS REPORT FOR RESEARCH STUDENT

SEMESTER ……2…. SESSION …2019/20.…

TITLE
Fire Resistance and Mechanical Properties of Sustainable Bricks Containing Palm Oil Fuel Ash and
Fly Ash

BACKGROUND
In this study, the compressive strength and bulk density of concrete bricks specimen will be
determine. Extensive research will be conducted on production of non-firing concrete bricks from
waste materials. This study focuses on the utilisation of waste palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and fly ash
(FA) to produce concrete bricks.
Next the effect of firing temperature will be studied at a temperature of 600 °C to investigate how
this common used construction materials behave during the fire disasters. The testing for concrete
bricks specimens will be conducted at 7, 28 and 90 days. The changing of the compressive strength
of concrete bricks after firing at high temperature will be investigate experimentally and analyse.
For firing, temperature on concrete bricks using efflorescence and water absorption tests on bricks.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
A wide variety of waste materials have been studied to produce concrete bricks with various mix
design proportion. Currently, many studies has been conducted on the use of FA in concrete bricks,
but the use POFA is still lacking. Therefore, this study will investigate the efficiency of mixed design
compositions either separately or in binary blended waste consisting of POFA and FA.

SCOPE
Palm Oil Fuel Ash and Fly Ash

OBJECTIVES
Researches went through manufacturing bricks from various wastes such as water treatment
residual, bottom ash, granite sawing waste, paper sludge, straw fibres, fly ash, rice husk ash, and
silica fume. This study will be investigated the fire resistance and mechanical properties of
concrete bricks containing fly ash (FA), palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and ordinary Portland cement
(OPC).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Bricks are a widely used construction and building material around the world. Conventional bricks
are produced from clay with high temperature kiln firing or from ordinary Portland cement (OPC)
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concrete, and thus contain high embodied energy and have large carbon footprint. In many areas
of the world, there is already a shortage of natural source material for production of the
conventional bricks. Quarrying operations to obtain clay require high energy, adversely affect the
landscape, and produce high level of wastes. High-temperature combustion not only consumes a
lot of energy, but also releases large amounts of greenhouse gases. Clay bricks, on average, have
about 2.0 kWh of energy and release about 0.41 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) per brick. It is also
noted that there is a shortage of clay in many parts of the world.
FA is a burnt residue of pulverized coal which is siliceous in nature. It is recycled in many
applications such as cement, concrete, masonry mortar and solid bricks. Increase in fly ash
reduced the water absorption. Tests for fire resistance indicated that the bricks did not show any
spalling, and there was increase in strength of up to 30% after heating.

POFA is obtained from a power plant that using palm fibre, palm shell, and empty fruit bunches as
fuel and burned at 800°C to 1,000°C. It has pozzolanic properties and is able to replace cement in
concrete work. POFA is normally grey in colour and becomes darker with the increasing of
unburnt carbon. Even though the particles are having a wide range sizes, they are observed to be
generally spherical and the specific gravity is less than that of OPC. The POFA fineness after
through the grinding process increases the surface area, while the mean particle size reduces.

METHODOLOGY
The concrete bricks is divided with three (3) group with consistently FA content where group A
with 90¿, group B 80¿and 70¿for group C. For each group containing 5% to 30% replacement
either POFA or OPC by weight of FA. Also have control bricks concrete specimen with 100¿. Total
of mix design composition for control concrete brick and three (3) are sixteen (16).

OUTCOMES: EXPECTED and/or TO DATE

Chapter 1 , 2 and 3

CONCLUSIONS (TO DATE)

Need to read more paper for literature review

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