Termite Mound Soils for Sustainable Production of Bricks

Legese, Alemu Mosisa; Kenate, Tesfaye Geneti; Feyessa, Fekadu Fufa

Termite Mound Soils for Sustainable Production of Bricks

Studia Geotechnica et Mechanica

Volume 43 (2021): Issue 2 (June 2021)

By:

Alemu Mosisa Legese, Tesfaye Geneti Kenate and Fekadu Fufa Feyessa

Open Access

|Jun 2021

Figures & Tables

Point locations of Sene and Jawaj sampling sites.

Colour of the termite mounds: (a) Jawaj (Red); (b) Sene (grey).

TMSs bricks production characterisation process: A = Sample collection; B = Preparation; C = Moulding; D = Firing; E = Fired bricks; and F = Compressive strength.

Standard compaction curve for TMSs and clay soil (fourth-order polynomial was used to give better results than the tangent line approximation).

Compressive strength of TMSs bricks and clay soils bricks at different firing temperatures.

Average dimension tolerance test results along the length 240 mm.

Average dimension tolerance test results along the width 120 mm.

Average dimension tolerance test results along the width 60 mm.

AASHTO classification for fine-grained soils (Brajam, 2002)_

Soil type (1)	Passing No. 200 sieve (2)	Liquid limit (3)	Plastic index (4)	Material type (5)
A4	36 min	36 min	10 min	Silty soil
A5	36 min	41 min	10 min	Silty soil
A6	36 min	40 min	11 min	Clayey soil
A7	36 min	41 min	11 min & PI ≤ LL-30	Clayey soil
	36 min	41 min	11 min & PI > LL-30	Clayey soil

Average water absorption and saturation coefficient of TMSs and clay soils bricks and their classification_

Type	Description		Firing temperature (°C)

			500	600	700	800	900	1,000
Jawaj	Mean W of 5 bricks (%)		12.26	14.72	15.72	15.98	11.17	9.88
	Classification	ES 86:2001	A	A	A	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW
	Mean saturation coefficients of 5 bricks %		0.85	0.84	0.78	0.70	0.39	0.37
	Classification	ES 86:2001	A	A	A	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW
Sene	Mean W of 5 bricks (%)		17.48	19.12	21.07	18.60	17.43	21.38
	Classification	ES 86:2001	A	A	A	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW
	Mean saturation coefficients of 5 bricks (%)		0.84	0.82	0.81	0.78	0.73	0.57
	Classification	ES 86:2001	B	B	B	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	MW	MW	MW	SW	SW	SW
Clay soil	Mean W^* of 5 bricks %		12.98	12.04	11.86	10.67	9.48	8.88
	Classification	(ES 86:2001)	A	A	A	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW	SW
	Mean saturation coefficients of 5 bricks (%)		0.87	0.84	0.82	0.69	0.68	0.65
	Classification	(ES 86:2001)	B	B	B	A	A	A
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	MW	MW	MW	SW	SW	SW

Physical properties of TMSs samples and clay soils_

Index properties	JTMSs	STMSs	Clay soils
Specific gravity	2.55	2.66	2.68
LL (%)	38	38	33.94
PL (%)	20	23	19.27
PI (%)	19	16	14.7
MDD^* (kg/m³)	1,684	1,614	1,870
OMC^* (%)	18	19	14.6
AASHTO class	A6	A6	A6

Oxide compositions of TMS_

TMS	Chemical compositions (%)

	SiO₂	Al₂O₃	Fe₂O₃	CaO	MgO	K₂O	Na₂O	MnO	P₂O₅	TiO₂	H₂O	LOI	SO₃
JTMSs	63.00	17.59	5.34	0.60	1.00	1.14	2.10	0.02	0.04	0.26	1.75	8.19	0.34
STMSs	61.38	18.48	5.90	0.66	1.14	1.84	1.14	0.06	0.05	0.28	0.65	8.38	0.32

Specific gravities ranges for various soil types (Das & Sawicki, 2001)_

Soil type	Specific gravity
Sand	2.63–2.67
Silt	2.65–2.7
Clay and silty clay	2.67–2.9
Organic soil	< 2

Mean compressive strength of five bricks and their classifications_

Bricks	Description		Firing temperature (°C)

			500	600	700	800	900	1,000
JTMSs bricks	Mean compressive strength of 5 bricks (MPa)		11	15	18	15	13	11
	Classification	ES 86:2001	C	B	B	B	C	C
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	NW	NW	MW	MW	NW	NW
STMSs bricks	Mean compressive strength of 5 bricks		8	10	14	13	12	12
	Classification	ES 86:2001	D	C	C	C	C	C
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	-	NW	NW	NW	NW	NW
JTMSs and STMSs bricks	Mean compressive strength of 5 bricks		9.4	12.8	16.4	14.1	12.6	11.3
	Classification	ES 86:2001	D	B	B	B	B	C
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	D	C	C	C	C	C
Clay soil bricks	Mean compressive strength of 5 bricks		8.10	8.58	10.8	13.02	15.25	17.36
	Classification	ES 86:2001	D	D	C	C	B	B
	Classification	ASTM C 62-97a	-	-	NW	NW	MW	MW

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sgem-2021-0006 | Journal eISSN: 2083-831X | Journal ISSN: 0137-6365

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Language: English

Page range: 142 - 154

Submitted on: Oct 22, 2020

Accepted on: Mar 9, 2021

Published on: Jun 30, 2021

Published by: Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

Keywords:

compressive strengths,

chemical composition,

firing temperature,

sustainable production,

Related subjects:

Physics,

Mechanics and fluid dynamics

© 2021 Alemu Mosisa Legese, Tesfaye Geneti Kenate, Fekadu Fufa Feyessa, published by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Termite Mound Soils for Sustainable Production of Bricks

Figures & Tables

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AASHTO classification for fine-grained soils (Brajam, 2002)_

Average water absorption and saturation coefficient of TMSs and clay soils bricks and their classification_

Physical properties of TMSs samples and clay soils_

Oxide compositions of TMS_

Specific gravities ranges for various soil types (Das & Sawicki, 2001)_

Mean compressive strength of five bricks and their classifications_

Paradigm

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