Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 3; August, 2014 pp. 62-65
Krishi Sanskriti Publications
http://www.krishisanskriti.org/jceet.html

Dumping of Clay Bricks in Fresh Concrete

Gaurav Kumar1, Jaikishan Damani2, Mayank Shrivastava3, Digvijay Pradhan4
1, 2, 3, 4
B.Tech., MANIT, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract: The title of the project is Dumping of clay bricks in
fresh concrete. This project aims at recycling the broken clay
bricks and assessing the effect of use of crushed brick aggregates
replacing the stone Aggregates thereby reducing the dead weight
of concrete as well. Clay bricks from the debris of a demolished
structure were recycled during the project. Bricks were collected
from rubble and reclaimed Bricks were hand crushed and sieved.
Aggregates passing through 40mm sieve and retaining on 20mm
Sieve were separated.
Nominal mix of 1:1.5:3 was used. 50% replacement of aggregates
was done by volume. 6 cubes were casted keeping in mind the
proposed mix. 6 more cubes with no replacement of Aggregates
were also casted keeping the cement content and the mix same.
The compressive strength of the casted cubes was checked. The
age of casted cubes were tested at 3, 7 and 28 days respectively.
The obtained strength of cubes with aggregates replaced was also
compared with the compressive strength of cubes without any
replacement to evaluate the impact of replacement. Dead weight
of both types of cubes was also noted and compared. The
compressive strength of concrete with crushed bricks was found
to be lower initially, but with the passage of time, the rate of
increase of strength dominated and the strength of the concrete
with crushed bricks surpassed the strength of concrete with no
replacement. Self curing property may be one probable
explanation for the same.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Crushed Bricks in
Concrete, Partial Aggregate Replacement, Compressive Strength
of Concrete with Marginal Materials.
earth. Outcomes are illegal dredging of river beds and deposits
of igneous rocks, price hikes for construction materials, etc.
Also in various parts of India like in few areas of West Bengal
where natural rock deposits are scarce, availability of stone
aggregates remains an issue at the time of construction of any
large structure. Not only India, same problem arises in
countries like Bangladesh as well. At such places utilization of
broken bricks as aggregates may thus prove to be an
alternative to the use of stone aggregates to some extent.
Another aspect which is affected by replacement is the project
economy. If the construction takes place at the site of
demolition itself or somewhere nearby, crushers may be
installed at the site and recycling of bricks may be done. This
will reduce the cost of land for disposing the scrap and will
also reduce the cost of borrowing and transporting natural
aggregates from the quarry.
In this report it is shown that partial mixing of brick
aggregates in concrete not only gives positive results in
compressive strength but also reduces the dead load of the
structure. Reduction in dead load may also lead to reduction in
the cross section of concrete. Thus if designed properly and
proper care is taken at the time of casting even the concrete
made of recycled ingredients may be highly serviceable in
long run.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. MATERIALS USED

Every year a lot of demolition takes place in India. This results 2.1 Brick Aggregates:
in production of large amount of debris including both
Reclaimed bricks were crushed manually using a hammer and
concrete as well as brick rubble. India produces approximately
the aggregates obtained were sieved obtaining considerable
12 million tones CDW annually, almost half of which is
amount of ingredients in the required grade (20mm-40mm).
simply thrown away in garbage bins, or dumped in landfills.
Dry and unsaturated bricks were used during this project.
Thousands of cubic meters of debris is crushed and dumped in
landfills reducing the utility value of the ingredients used in
construction of the demolished structure, as well as the 2.2 Stone Aggregates:
precious land area. All the coarse aggregates were of igneous origin. They were
sieved and aggregates passing through 40mm sieve and
On the other hand with repeated use of natural sources for the retaining on 20mm sieve were used. All the flaky and
extraction of raw materials (stone aggregates, sand etc.) for elongated particles were removed.
construction purposes, huge stress has been developed on
Dumping of Clay Bricks in Fresh Concrete
3. PROPORTIONING OF AGGREGATES
As per IS 456:2000 for M20 grade of concrete, aggregates
used must be less than 250 kg per 50 kg of cement. Also the
proportion of fine to coarse aggregates is 1:2. Hence the ratio
of cement: sand: stone aggregates for concrete comes out to be
1:1.5:3 by volume.
To prepare a workable mix, w/c ratio of 0.5 was used.
For 50% replacement of aggregates by broken bricks, the ratio
for cement: sand: stone aggregates: broken bricks comes out to
be 1:1.5:1.5:1.5.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology
Print ISSN: 2349-8404;
8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 3; August, 2014
63
To prepare a workable mix, w/c ratio of 0.67 was used. (W/c
ratio was enhanced as the bricks used were dry and surplus
water was required to saturate them.)
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1 Preparation of brick aggregates:
Dried clay bricks were collected from a heap of rubble, with
mortar still in the frog. These reclaimed bricks were used in
the project to depict the original site conditions where
recycling of broken bricks from demolished structures will be
done. Mortar was removed from the bricks and the bricks were
then subjected to hand crushing.
The obtained crushed brick particles were sieved through 40
mm and retained on 20 mm. Flaky and elongated particles
were removed.
4.2 Sieving of stone aggregates:
Stone aggregates were also subjected to sieving with the same
sieves. Flaky particles were removed to ensure that the
comparison of strength of cubes is done fairly.
4.3 Dry mixing of ingredients in proportions by volume:
To simulate actual site conditions, volume of ingredients was
calculated by a standard cylindrical container instead of
measuring the weights of the ingredients.
The ingredients were poured on a concrete floor and were
mixed thoroughly with a spade. Water content was then
calculated, and the quantity of water was added to the
homogenous mix before starting the mixing process again.
64 Gaurav Kumar, Jaikishan Damani, Mayank Shrivastava, Digvijay Pradhan

4.5 Preparation for testing of cubes:

Cubes on the day of testing were taken out of the curing tank.
The surface water was wiped and the dead weight of the cubes
was noted.

Figure 1 : Dry Mixing of Constituents

4.4 Casting and Curing of Cubes

The slurry was mixed thoroughly to ensure homogeneity. It
was then filled into cubical moulds in stages, and a needle
vibrator was used for vibration such that the concrete in the
mould is compacted and void free. Too much vibration may
lead to segregation of constituents.

The top surface was smoothened and the cubes were marked
after the initial setting time of the concrete, say after a few
hours. The cubes were then placed in damp conditions. After
24 hours, the moulds were unscrewed and the cubes were
taken out and then put in a curing tank with the temperature of
water being maintained almost constant.
Figure 3 : Casted cubes out of curing tank just before testing
Cubes were then placed in compression strength testing
machine with almost flat surfaces parallel to the loading
plunger. The cubes were subjected to gradual compressive
loading at the rate of 140 kg/sq m/min until failure. The cubes
were taken out after failure and the failure planes were
observed.

5. RESULTS
5.1 Results of dead weight and compressive strength of the
tested cubes:
Table 1 : Strength of cubes with 50% replacement of aggregates
by bricks after 7 days

Cube Dead Load Sustained Compressive

Weight [kg] [kN] Strength [N/mm2]

1 8.00 334.0 14.84

2 8.10 354.0 15.73

3 8.25 336.4 14.95

Mean 8.12 341.5 15.17

Figure 2 : Curing Tank

Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 3; August, 2014
Dumping of Clay Bricks in Fresh Concrete 65

Table 2 : Strength of cubes with no replacement of aggregates compressive strength of the cubes with 50% replacement of
after 7 days aggregates by bricks was 20.76 N/mm2, which means they
surpassed the strength of cubes with no replacement, i.e. 20.10
Cube Dead Load Compressive N/mm2. It implies that the rate of increase of strength of
Weight Sustained [kN] Strength [N/mm2] concrete with 50% replacement of aggregates by bricks is
[kg] more than that of the concrete with no replacement.
1 8.47 382.0 16.98
One possible explanation of these results lies in the fact that as
2 8.58 393.6 17.49
the water content for the cubes with 50% replacement of
3 8.82 394.8 17.55 aggregates by bricks was higher than that of the cubes with no
Mean 8.62 390.13 17.34 replacement, the extra water absorbed inside the bricks helps
the concrete in the hydration process at later stages. Hence the
Table 3 : Strength of cubes with 50% replacement of aggregates brick particles act as self curing agents in the concrete mix.
by bricks after 28 days
Also, the reduction in weight is a significant result. The
Cube Dead Load Sustained Compressive reduction in weight of the concrete will result in lesser
Weight [kN] Strength strength requirement, or in other words, will lead to thinner
[kg] [N/mm2] sections, hence savings in material.
1 8.41 472.8 21.01
7. FUTURE WORK
2 8.57 456.6 20.29
3 8.46 472.3 20.99 The scope of this project not only limits to the data presented
in this report. Re-proportioning of brick content may give
Mean 8.48 467.2 20.76
some other trends of growth of strength. Using saturated
bricks will require less water at the time of mixing and can
Table 4 : Strength of cubes with no replacement of aggregates
demonstrate the site conditions to certain extent.
after 28 days
Another variation can in the form of finely powdered brick
Cube Dead Weight Load Sustained Compressive replacing the sand thus reducing the load over the river beds to
[kg] [kN] Strength some extent. Varying water cement ratio without changing the
[N/mm2] relative proportions of other ingredients can be tried to check
1 8.86 449.8 19.99 workability and strength gain with time.
2 8.77 449.4 19.97
Scrap or rubble concrete may be another waste material
3 8.74 457.7 20.34
which may be recycled in fresh concrete by replacing coarse
Mean 8.79 452.33 20.10 aggregates with certain proportions of broken concrete
aggregates. This will form a homogenous concrete and
6. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION strength closer to target strength may be also achieved.
The strength achieved at 7 days should be 70% of the mean
REFERENCES
target strength. Observing the results, the mean strengths for
the concrete with 50% replacement of aggregates by bricks [1] www.waste-management-world.com/articles/print/volume-
and the concrete with no replacement after 7 days come out to 12/issue-5/features/rebuilding-c-d-waste-recycling-efforts-in-
be 15.17 N/mm2 and 17.34 N/mm2, the values being india.html accessed on 02-06-2014
sufficiently ahead of 70% (i.e. 14 N/mm2). [2] www.duet.ac.bd/journal/Journal_12/3.pdf accessed on 01-06-
2014
However, after 28 days, when another set of cubes was [3] IS-456:2000
checked for compressive strength, it was found that the [4] IS-512:1959

Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 3; August, 2014