aDepartment of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad
bProcess Engineering, The University of Trinidad and Tobago, Point Lisas Campus, Brechin Castle, Trinidad
*Corresponding Author Email: roger.mylan@my.uwi.edu (R. Mylan)
**chris.maharaj@sta.uwi.edu (C. Maharaj)
***rean.maharaj@utt.edu.tt (R. Maharaj)
Online published on 12 September, 2017.
In order to address major quality defects such as cracking, excessive shrinkage and unsatisfactory product color in the final brick product being produced by a major clay block manufacturer in Trinidad, the non-optimization of block ingredients was investigated as the possible root cause for the defects. The effect of incremental deviations of the proportion of clay and sand to the original formulation on physical characteristics of compressive strength and modulus of rupture, and the aesthetic property of color was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy was conducted to measure the efficiency of mixing in the preparation of the blends along with the elemental composition and distribution at the surface of the samples. The results indicated that at the statistical 95% confidence level, a 2.5% addition of clay to the original formulation resulted in a significant increase in compressive strength (89%) and modulus of rupture (57.5%). An improvement in the color aesthetic was also observed. The presence of homogenous elemental distributions indicated by SEM and elemental mapping studies indicated homogenous mixing. The presence of aluminum atoms (from the clay material in the form of kaolinite) suggests that the added clay (kaolinite) facilitates increased inter-particle bridging, increasing adhesion and cohesion characteristics thus, improving compressive strength and modulus of rupture as observed.
