Influence of Rice Husk Ash on the Engineering Properties of Fired-Clay Brick

The aim of this study is to determine the influence of rice husk ash (RHA) on the engineering properties of fired-clay brick with the present of 10% sand. Temperature 1200°C is selected as the optimum temperature based on the preliminaries study. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), were carried out to determine the characteristic of raw materials used. Mechanical properties of rice husk ash-clay bricks are determined in terms of compressive strength, porosity and water absorption. The results shows that increase in RHA replacement percentage reduce the compressive strength and linear shrinkage of fired-clay bricks while the porosity and water absorption value increase. From the investigation, we can conclude that the optimum mixing ratio for fired-clay brick containing RHA is 15% because it complied with the minimum requirement for building material in term of strength and water absorption.