“Structural properties of masonry bricks manufactured from clay deposits in Ghana”

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Date
1990-03-29
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Abstract
In the past, there has been very little use of burnt clay bricks for constructional purposes in Ghana. This situation is viewed as an anomaly since all the raw material requirements for their production are locally obtainable. Rather, the preference, to date, has been for sandcrete blocks whose production is heavily dependent on the availability of imported cement. The need to conserve our limited foreign exchange in the face of the country’s present economic situation has been reiterated on numerous occasions by the government. It is anticipated that the use of burnt clay bricks will be promoted vigorously as the government continues the search for solutions to the housing deficit problem. The situation therefore calls for an engineering investigation into our abundant clay deposits as well as the bricks that can be manufactured from these clays. The database that can be derived from this investigation will, needless to say, provide invaluable information for engineering design purposes. The present study attempts to fulfil this national need. Experiments were conducted to establish the suitability or otherwise, of selected clay deposits for brick manufacture in the country. Next, burnt clay bricks manufactured from these clays were used to make model brickwork panels meant for structural (uniaxial) testing. The results indicate that, firstly, the clay deposits are very suitable for the manufacture of burnt bricks. Secondly, and more importantly, the finding was made that under the application of uniaxial compressive loading, structural brickwork obeys the single plane of weakness theory, which was originally proposed by J.C. Jaeger to explain the failure mode of sedimentary rocks. This finding will, doubtlessly, throw more light on design principles involving brick masonry structures.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy, 1990
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