Production of Lightweight Thermal Insulating Clay Bricks using Papyrus

Abstract

The paper presents an experimental investigation into the possibility of producing lightweight clay bricks by adding flakes of papyrus, locally called (Bardy). The flakes were sieved to obtain a powder with maximum particle size of 2.5 mm. The bricks were prepared with the addition of increasing amounts of flakes of papyrus (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mass%) to the clay slurry. Different temperatures of 650, 900, and 1050°C were embayed to fire the specimens. The thermal conductivity, water absorption, porosity, bulk density, firing shrinkage, compressive strength, and bending strength of the samples were measured. It was observed that the apparent compressive strength, bending strength, firing shrinkage, thermal conductivity, and density increased with the firing temperature increase and decreased with the papyrus flakes content increase; however, water absorption and porosity showed an opposite behavior.