Abstract:
The local fired brick production technique is the known method of brick making especially in Jimma Town. Firing of
bricks in local brick production method is conducted by burning of much amount of woods. But this method of firing bricks
by burning of woods will affect the environment. The locale firing technique is difficult to control the firing temperature,
which will result in non-uniform burnt bricks. The major objective of this experimental study was to compare the
compressive strengths of locally fired clay bricks and the local unfired cement and lime stabilized clay bricks. Specifically,
the index properties of soil used for brick production, the compressive strength of locally fired clay bricks and stabilized
clay bricks had been determined and to compare with the standard specifications. This study, it was used contents of the
stabilizer for cement and lime of 10%, 12% and 14%, respectively. The mix ratio applied 1:9, 1:7 and 1:6 by volume of clay
with stabilizer 10%, 12% and 14%. Based on the result at 28th day, the mean compressive strength test, the 10%, 12% and
14% cement Stabilized clay bricks have compressive strengths of 2.91Mpa, 3.28Mpa, and 3.79Mpa respectively, which are
better than the mean compressive strength of the locally fired clay bricks which is 2.73Mpa. On the other hand, the 28th day
mean compressive strengths of the lime stabilized clay bricks were 2.19Mpa, 2.51Mpa and 2.69Mpa, respectively.
Therefore, these results showed that the Fired Clay Brick fails the minimum mean compressive strength requirement based
on the ES, ASTM and IS standards. But the Stabilized Clay Bricks fulfill the minimum compressive strength requirements
of IS standard for stabilized bricks. Among these three methods, the cement stabilized clay bricks indicated better in quality
than both locally fired and lime stabilized bricks.
