Investigation of mechanical and thermal behavior of Basalt Cutting Waste (BCW) added clay brick

Porous clay bricks produced by adding 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by weight ofBasalt Cutting Waste (BCW) were manufactured by semi-dry pressingprocess. BCW (Karacadağ, Diyarbakir, Turkey) was added to brick rawmaterial as an additive in order to increase porosity and strength. Thechemical composition and thermal behaviors of raw materials wereinvestigated and SEM analysis was performed. Brick mixes containingdifferent proportions of BCW were formed and then fired at 900 and 1000° Cfor two hours. Porosity, water absorption, compressive strength, thermalconductivity and microstructure of the samples were examined. It wasobserved that the porosity ratios were increased by up to 34% with theaddition of BCW, however, compressive strength (at least 28 MPa) decreased.However, the compressive strength was found to be higher than the requiredstandards. The thermal conductivity of samples with the addition of 20% BCWdecreased from 0.98 up to 0.72 W / mK compared to the reference sample,which also corresponds to a reduction of 26.5% in proportion to the referencesample along with the increase in porosity. The increase in firing temperaturealso affected the mechanical and physical properties of the samples. Inconclusion, this study revealed that the brick samples produced could beevaluated and used as insulating materials by adding BCW to buildingmaterials in construction applications.