Utilizing coal combustion bottom ash as a sustainable alternative to natural aggregate in eco-friendly building bricks

As a substitute for fried clay and stone powder-cement bricks, this study developed novel green bricks based on coal-combustion bottom ash (CCBA) obtained from a thermal power plant in Vietnam. By using varied replacement amounts of stone powder at 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% in weight, ten brick compositions with water-to-binder (w/b) ratios of 0.35 and 0.40 were developed. Testing was done on the bricks' characteristics, such as compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, water absorption, water permeability, electrical resistance, and thermal conductivity. The findings showed that increasing CCBA content or w/b ratio has a negative impact on the characteristics of unburnt bricks. However, all the brick samples made for this investigation performed exceptionally well when compared to the requirements of the national Vietnamese standard. The brick samples produced in this study are recommended to apply in real practice.