Investigation of tensile strength of a brick made of clay soil and rice husks

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the tensile strength of clay of varied proportions of rice husk. The research utilized three specific objectives of the study namely; to produce rectangular samples of clay bricks mixed with varying proportion of rice husks, to determine the tensile strength of the samples and to compare the fibre aspect ratio that will produce optimum mechanical strength of the enhanced soil blocks. The six samples were achieved by adding 0g, 20g, 40g, 60g, 80g and 100g of rice husk in each case to 400g of clay. The amount of rice husk and clay was measured using an electronic balance and tested using hydraulic pressing machine. The breaking force of the samples was measured using a Denson tensile Strength testing machine. The results of six samples with rice husk in grams of 0g, 20g, 40g, 60g, 80g and 100g were shown in the table and found to have the tensile strengths of 0.0692kNcm-2, 0.0595kNcm-2, 0.0503kNcm-2, 0.0387kNcm-2, 0.0345kNcm-2 and 0.0139kNcm-2 respectively The graph of rice husk ratio against tensile strength was drawn using matlab in analyzing the results , a straight line with a negative slope was drawn. Therefore the tensile strength of the samples decreased gradually with an increase of rice husk ratio in the clay samples From the results, a construction engineer or a clay brick user can therefore determine what inter molecular forces between the particles would be for different rice husk percentage. One can also determine what the tensile strength would be for rice husk proportions. It is also recommended that further studies should be carried out to investigate the tensile strength of the clay bricks fired at different temperatures besides using compression pressure for the green samples.