Evaluation of the Mechanical Behavior of Clay Bricks Stabilized at 4% Cement and Mixed with Limba Wood Waste

In this study, the authors evaluated the mechanical behavior of bricks made of clay material stabilized with 4% cement and mixed with different contents (0; 2; 4; 6 and 8%) of limba wood waste (sawdust and chips). The clayey raw material ANMK was characterized by the method of X-ray diffraction (XRD) on oriented sheets (normal, glycol and heated to 490°C), by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The chemical and mineralogical compositions of cement used were determined by inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and by X-ray diffraction. This clay material consists of 96% kaolinite and 4% of the chlorite / montmorillonite interstratified. The morphology of the material observed by scanning electron microscopy showed an irregularity of clusters. The elementary analysis by energy dispersive spectroscopy shows that this material is essentially aluminosilicate. The chemical analysis of the cement showed a predominance of CaO (67%) and SiO2 (21%), however the mineralogical analysis showed the presence of calcite, alite, hatrurite and brownmillerite. This clay material has a mass shrinkage on drying of 26.6% and the linear shrinkage is 6.4%. The formulation with sawdust appears to give greater flexural and compressive strengths than those obtained with chips.