High Performance Bricks from Fly Ash

Bricks whose solid ingredient is 100% fly ash have been manufactured. The manufacturing process uses techniques and equipment similar to those used in clay brick factories. The bricks produced were about 28% lighter than clay bricks. The bricks manufactured from fly ash possessed compressive strength higher than 40 MPa. This exceeds some of the best of load carrying clay bricks available by more than 25% and is several times better than acceptable commercially available common clay bricks. Other important characteristics of the fly ash bricks have been evaluated. These included absorption capacity, initial rate of absorption, modulus of rupture, bond strength and durability. The values of these characteristics for fly ash bricks are excellent and have exceeded those pertaining to clay bricks. Moreover, fly ash bricks have been produced with a naturally occurring reddish colour similar to that of normal clay bricks. The new bricks and process have been patented and the new bricks have been given the name FlashBricks. This paper presents the results of testing and the advantages gained by this type of bricks over conventional clay bricks.