Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441

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Construction and Building Materials

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Fired hollow clay bricks manufactured from black cotton soils and
natural pozzolans in Kenya
Peiping Zhang a, Jinqiu Huang a, Zhaopu Shen b, Xuelian Wang c, Feng Luo a, Peng Zhang a, Jian Wang a,
Shiding Miao a,⇑
a
Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
b
China Road and Bridge Co., An-Ding-Men Outside Street C88, Beijing 100011, China
c
Sichuan Province Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development Chengdu Integrated Testing Center of Rocks and Ores, Chengdu 610081, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

The black cotton soils and volcanic Fired hollow clay bricks have been manufactured by firing the black cotton soil and natural volcanic ashes
ashes are abundant in Kenya. which were both collected from Kenya. Insights on the mineralogy and firing parameters were provided

Sintering is an attractive option to in obtaining brilliant mechanical properties.
allow making use of such soils.

Optimum parameters were given to
get brilliant physical-mechanical
properties.

The mineralogy and firing behavior
have been studied via various means.

Products meet criterion of the first-
class bricks based on GB/T 13545-
2014.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The fired hollow clay bricks (FHCBs) have been manufactured by firing a type of highly expansive soils,
Received 1 December 2016 the black cotton soil (BCS), and natural volcanic ashes (VA), which were both collected from Kenya.
Received in revised form 1 March 2017 Characterizations including the X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses and electron microscopy
Accepted 3 March 2017
have been performed to derive mineralogical transformations in the firing process. Various feedings
and firing temperatures have been tried to examine impacts on the physical-mechanical properties (com-
pressive strength, bulk density, linear shrinkage and apparent porosity). Results indicated that the mass
Keywords:
ratio of BCS:VA 7:3–8:2 can readily diminish the shrinkage of the FHCB, and the firing temperature
Hollow clay bricks
Black cotton soils
(1000–1100 °C) affords the best physical-mechanical performance. The products meet requirements of
Natural pozzolan the first-class FHCBs MU10.0 referring to GB/T 13545-2014. The mineralogical study indicates that clay
A mineralogical study minerals in BCS undergo decomposition at about 900 °C, and the reaction as well as the phase transfor-
mation was proposed as: phyllosilicates + volcanic glass ? feldspar ? pyroxene ? melted substances ?
vitreous solids, which was a reverse geology evolution of volcanic lava. This research provides a strategy
in making use of vast resources BCS in Kenya obtained from municipal constructions.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Black cotton soil (BCS) is mostly found in mid-Africa, south-

Asia, and parts of China [1,2]. This type of soils is mainly composed
of clay minerals of smectite group which are highly expansive as
⇑ Corresponding author.
exposure to water [3,4]. The swelling property gives rise to serious
E-mail address: miaosd@jlu.edu.cn (S. Miao).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.03.018
0950-0618/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
436 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441

problems in civil engineering on condition that it was used directly (a) 200
29-1491 saponite 29-1497 nontronite
for construction, or otherwise the BCS has to be thrown away. A
35-0652 illite-montmorillonite 43-0685 illite
case in point was found in Kenya where the BCS was always stock-
85-1787 clinoptilolite 74-1137 leuchtenbergite
piled owning to the fast development of municipal constructions. It

Intensity (CPS)
77-0022 vermiculite 45-1427 chabazite
is to find out a facile but low-cost strategy to utilize the clay soils. 160
09-0465 anorthite
Sintering is an attractive option to allow making use of such soils. 74-1137 chlorite
Fired clay bricks are the best known type of bricks and also one 03-0391 analcime
of the oldest construction materials [5]. With the development of
120
civilization, great demands are foreseen for the developing coun-
tries especially for Kenya as in Africa. However, the clay soils are
a type of precious resources. To reduce consumption of clays, the 20 40 60 80
fired hollow clay bricks (FHCBs) more favored due to the less con- 2 Theta ( )
o

sumption of soils, brilliant strength, and light-weightiness. In this

research we proposed a strategy to manufacture FHCBs by using (b)
the BCS. This proposal was also based on the abundance in volcanic 120 F F: forsterite
A: augite
ashes (VA) which can be obtained in Kenya. However, the knowl-

Intensity (a.u)
D: diopside
edge of both BCS and VA in mid-Africa is quite limited, and the
80 W: wollastonite
mineralogy and firing behaviors remain unknown up to date. F F
Although there were studies on the mineralogy from point view F AW
F
of geological evolution [6], the direct use of BCS as industrial prod- 40 W A
ucts has not been reported yet [7]. Herein, a detailed study was D
conducted by means of wet-chemical analysis, mineralogical phase
study, thermal measurements, and the optical-/electron- 0
20 40 60 80
microscopy characterizations. Various feedings (BCS:VA) and fired o
2 Theta ( )
temperatures (T) were found to have great impacts on the physical
and mechanical properties. Fig. 1. The XRD profiles of the BCS (a) and VA (b) used in this research.

2. Materials and methods 2.3. Physical-mechanical properties measurements

2.1. Materials and characterizations
The BCS clay was sampled from a site of road-construction in Kenya, which is
located at the longitude of 36°310 E and latitude of 1°350 S. The volcanic ash was col-
lected from Simba quarry, Kenya. Chemical compositions of both BCS and VA are
listed in Table 1. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of BCS and VA are given as
Fig. 1. The major components in the BCS were found as clay minerals including
montmorillonite, chlorite, vermiculite and illite, etc. Minor phases were found as
zeolites, quartz and feldspar. The crystalline phases were identified as forsterite,
augite, diopside and wollastonite in the VA, but the amorphous substances are
the main phase.
Characterizations including the XRD and the electronic microscopy observation
were described as followed. Powders of BCS and VA (after complete drying at
105 °C) are fixed on the holder of XRD diffractometer (Rigaku D/MAX2500, CuKa
radiation). Data were recorded in the 2h range of 3–80° with a speed of 0.02°/20 s
per step. For the electron microscopy characterization, tiny pieces of 0.5–1.0 mm
were selected arbitrarily from the air-dried specimens, and were observed under
a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, HITACHI SU8020) equipped
with 15 kV accelerated voltage.
The physical-mechanical properties include unconfined compressive strength,
linear shrinkage, bulk density, apparent porosity and water absorption. Methods
in measurements were conducted according to the Chinese National Standards
(GB/T 2524), which are similar to the ASTM C67-14 and C20-00 standard tests
[9,10]. For example, the bulk density of the brick in grams per cubic centimeter is
the quotient of dry weight (W1) divided by the exterior volume (V). The exterior
volume of the sintered products in cubic centimeters was calculated by subtracting
the suspended weight (W2) from the saturated weight (W3). The W3 was deter-
mined while products were immersed in boiling water for 2 h. The W2 was deter-
mined after boiling while the specimens were suspended in water. The water
absorption was calculated from the ratio between W3-W1 and W1 [11]. The open
porosity expressed as a percentage the relationship between the open pore volume
in the sintered products and the exterior volume, calculated from the ratio between
W3-W1 and W3-W2. Changes in specimen volume after sintering were to deter-
mine the linear shrinkage percentages. The unconfined compressive strength
(UCP) was measured using the GB/T 13545-2014 standard [12]. The UCP values
were obtained in triplicate using a loading rate of 0.1 MPa/s.
3. Results and discussions

2.2. Firing procedures 3.1. Physical-mechanical properties

The BCS and VA were sundried, grinded, passed through sieves of 200 meshes,
and were blended to obtain homogenous mixes consisting with VA of 0%, 10%, 20%,
30%, 40% and 50% (by weight), respectively. The raw briquettes were prepared at a
pressure of 4.0 MPa in a mold. The bricks were burnt in electric furnace (KSL-
1500X-L) according to designed heating program as shown in Fig. 2.
3.1.1. External appearance
Photographs of the raw briquettes and fired FHCBs were pre-
sented in Fig. 3. The brick samples were prepared as the half-size
of diameters (240  180  115 mm3) termed as the GB/T2542.

Table 1
Chemical composition of the BCS and the VA of Kenya.a

Compositions SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 FeO MgO MnO P2 O5 TiO2

BCS 50.34 16.89 9.07 0.37 0.95 0.065 0.017 0.90
VA 45.72 11.75 1.84 9.00 13.75 0.181 0.50 2.68
Compositions CaO K2O Na2O MgO Organic H2O+ H2O LOIb
BCS 1.70 1.01 0.76 0.95 1.68 7.93 8.15 18.04
VA 9.09 1.09 2.57 13.75 0.67 0.060 0.19 0.64
a
The chemical composition was obtained via the method of wet chemical analyses [8].
b
Loss of ignition.
 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441
1200
60min
900
Temperature ( C)
o
60min
600
300
30min
0
0 200 400
Time (min)
Fig. 2. The heating program of the FHCBs.
The raw briquette exhibits as grayish (Fig. 3a). After sintering spec-
imens becomes reddish, which can be reasoned by oxidation of fer-
rous silicates [13]. There are little cracking or fissure in the external
appearance, suggesting the raw briquettes remain uniform shrink-
age in volume during the sintering.
3.1.2. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS)
Fig. 4 shows the UCS for fired specimens as a function of tem-
perature and the VA percentages added in the raw briquettes. As
denoted by the dotted line which refers to the MU10.0 standard
according to the GB/T 13545-2014 standard, most of the FHCBs
fabricated at dosages of VA (10–50% wt.) fired at temperatures of
900–1100 °C, have their UCS higher than MU10.0 which belongs
to the first-class FHCBs termed as GB/T 13545-2014. This measure-
ment indicated that our fabricated FHCBs are a type of lightweight
bricks. The UCS was found to increase with increased tempera-
tures. There is a maximum value of UCS for every recipe of VA,
and the maximum UCS is far larger than the MU10.0. For example,
the UCS increases from 45.6 to 82.3 MPa when the fired tempera-
ture was enhanced from 800 to 1100 °C. The difference lies in per-
centages of VA added to reach the maximum UCS value. Higher
temperature, e.g., 1100 °C, was found to afford the UCS maximum
at the VA percentage of 30%, but the lower temperature (1000 °C)
sintered samples were found to reach its UCS maximum at a less
percentage of VA (15–20%). This gives us a chance to reduce the
amount of clay soils.
3.1.3. Linear shrinkage
The linear shrinkage is another important factor which evalu-
ates dimensional changes of the brick. As shown in Fig. 5, the linear
shrinkage measured by the length variations of rectangular speci-
mens was found at 6–11% when the FHCBs were prepared with
percentages of VA less than 10%. The shrinkage decrease when
the VA dosage increases. This phenomenon was observed for sam-
ples calcined at 800, 900 and 1000 °C. However, specimens fired at
1100 °C always have a linear shrinkage higher than 9%, and the
Fig. 3. Photographs of the raw briquettes (a) and the fired hollow clay bricks (b).
437
80
o
1100 C
60
UCS (MPa)
o
1000 C
40
o
900 C
20
o
800 C
0
600 0 10 20 30 40 50
% VA addition (by weigth)
Fig. 4. Effects of the sintered temperature and the VA dosage on the strength of
FHCBs.
shrinkage does not seem to change with VA dosages. This value
(9%) value is inferior to the criteria of GB/T 13545-2014 (dotted
line in Fig. 5) [14]. Therefore, to reduce the shrinkage as well as
maintaining the strength, the firing temperature would be set at
a temperature lower than 1100 °C.
3.1.4. Bulk density
The bulk density is a measure denoting the capability in service
of light-weight buildings. As denoted in Fig. 6, bricks were made
from BCS always have a wide density range (1.16–2.04 g/cm3),
and this phenomenon is different from the narrowly varied density
observed by Lin et al. [15]. Reasons can be referred to the great dif-
ference in the density between BCS and VA. However, our fabri-
cated bricks have their superiority in the lower density than
those of made from sludge, fly ashes or bio-materials [13,16]. This
can be owned to the expansive feature of the BCS [11]. It is inter-
esting to note that samples fired at 900 and 1000 °C were found
to experience an increment in bulk density at low percentages of
VA, but a decrement at higher VA dosages. This reflects the essen-
tial complexity in the densification of the sintering reaction. Possi-
bly, bubbles were formed at certain temperatures, but these
bubbles may be diminished with proceeding of calcination. This
indication has been verified by the polarized optical microscopy
observation. Taken the strength properties into consideration, the
temperature should be set better at 1000–1050 °C, and the dosage
of VA is ca. 20–30% wt. This stoichiometry produces a lowest den-
sity whilst the UCS remains the highest value in all samples.
3.1.5. Apparent porosity and water absorption
The pore volume and water absorption determine the capacity
for fluid storage and circulation within bricks. These parameters
are especially important to evaluate the capability when the FHCBs
are combined with use of concrete. As can be seen from Fig. 7a, the
FHCB fired at 1100 °C undergoes pronounced decrement in the
apparent porosity. However, other lower temperatures (800, 900
438 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441

and 1000 °C) fired samples have larger apparent porosity (30%).
12 This suggests light-weight bricks can only be obtained at temper-
o
1100 C atures lower than 1100 °C. The apparent porosity in the sample
fired at 1000 °C shows an increasing trend, but it was stabilized
Linear shrinkage (%)

9
at 25% when the increasing dosage of VA. Based on the UCS test
o results, we know these sample have good mechanical properties
1050 C
6 (UCS > 60 MPa), suggesting such samples obtained at 1000 °C have
o large sum of pores whilst remain the strength robustness. Mea-
1000 C
o surements in water absorption (Fig. 7b) were found in consistence
3 900 C with the apparent porosity, in which samples with more porosity
demonstrate better storage of water and light weightiness.
800 C
o Although higher temperatures afford FHCBs exhibiting greater
0 compressive strength, yet the over burning can be detrimental.
0 10 20 30 40 50 Under such conditions, samples were found to show huge linear
% VA addition (by weight) shrinkage, diminished porosity and less water absorption capacity.
Therefore, the FHCBs fired at <1100 °C are suitable to be used as
Fig. 5. Effects of the fired temperature and the VA dosage on linear shrinkage of
FHCBs. combined with concretes where the water environment is encoun-
tered [11,17]. To confirm the formation of bubbles as well reveal-
ing the provenance of light-weightiness, we utilized the optical
2.1 polarized microscope to study the fired samples. A thin section of
FHCBs was examined under two modes: parallel (PPL) and cross
o (XPL) polarization. The PPL and XPL images were provided in
1.8 1100 C
Fig. 7c and d, respectively. The matrix is mainly composed of gran-
Bulk density (g/cm )

o
3

1000 C
ules of microcrystalline (XPL image in Fig. 7d). However, there are
1.5 o circular shapes in the PPL image (Fig. 7c), but the area is totally
800 C
black in the XPL image, indicating there are gas bubbles formed
1.2
during the sintering. Vitrified areas were also observed, and the
crystallites with micrometer sizes were detected in the vicinity.
o As expected, the higher temperature produces more vitreous areas
0.9 900 C
in the matrix, and a continuous reduction in porosity was observed
in the 1100 °C-fired sample.
0 10 20 30 40 50
% VA addition (by weigth) 3.2. Discussions
Fig. 6. Effects of the sintered temperature and the VA dosage on bulk density of
specimens 3.2.1. Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis
The firing temperature is the most important factor that causes
minerals to undergo a sequence of chemical and structural trans-

(a) 30 (b) 20
o
Apparent porosity (%)

800 C
Water adsorption (%)

16 o
900 C
20 12 o
o 1000 C
1100 C
o
1000 C 8
10 o
900 C
o 4
800 C o
1100 C
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
% VA addition (by weight) (d) % VA addition (by weigth)
(c)

Fig. 7. (a, b) Effects of firing temperatures and VA dosages on the apparent porosity (a) and water absorption (b); (c, d) Thin-section photomicrograph taken on an arbitrary
section of a brick prepared at 1000 °C in the model of PPL (c) and XPL (d).
 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441 439

formations such as, oxidation, decomposition and formation of

-5 VA new phases, etc [18]. Herein, the thermogravimetric analyses were
conducted on the BCS, VA and BCS + VA mixtures. As displayed in
Weigth loss (%)

0 Fig. 8, the first 7.5% weight loss found in the BCS between 20 and
BCS:VA=1:1
130 °C is due to the evaporation of physical water. The second
5 mass loss was observed at the temperature range of 450–500 °C,
which can be attributed to the dehydration of crystallization water.
Further slight weight losses found between 700–1100 °C may be
10 BCS:VA=4:1 due to the burning of organic matter and/or undergoing mineralog-
ical transformations [19]. The VA shows an increment in the mass
15 during all the sintering temperatures. This mass increase might be
BCS reasoned by the possible oxidations or some allotropic transforma-
20 tions to oxides and sulphates [20]. Mixtures of BCS + VA were per-
200 400 600 800 1000 formed on the BCS:VA mass ratios of 4:1 and 1:1. For example, the
o
Temperature ( C) mixture of BCS:VA = 1:1 exhibit no huge weight variations in all
tested temperature, which means the mass decrement in BCS
Fig. 8. Thermogravimetric (TG) profiles of the BCA, BCS-VA (7:3), BCS-VA (8:2) and
VA. and increment in VA were roughly equivalent. The mixture of

W
An D Fo o
(a) Cr
F H
(b) L L 1100 C
An H1100oC W
AbAb H H H Ab 1000 C
o

o
1000 C o
900 C
P o
900 C o
800 C
o
800 C
P 600 C
o
o
600 C
P F
W Fo WFoF Fo F VA
BCS

15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60
o o
2 Theta ( ) 2Theta( )

Sa LSa
(c) 800oC L,Ab BCS:VA (d) En,Ab
P
o
900 C Py En En BCS:VA
Py 9:1 9:1
P
4:1 4:1

Py Py 3:1 3:1
Ab
Ab
Py Py 1:1
1:1

15 30 o
45 60 15 30 45 o 60
2 Theta ( ) 2 Theta ( )

Cr Cr
(e) o
(f) o F
1000 C En BCS:VA 1100 C
Py
En MaMa BCS:VA
95:5 F
9:1
An H H
9:1
F
4:1
4:1 Cr
Cr Cr
3:2
3:1
Cr
2:3 F
Ab 1:1
1:4
15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60
o o
2 Theta ( ) 2 Theta ( )

Fig. 9. The XRD patterns of BCA (a), VA (b) and composite of BCS + VA calcined at 800° (c), 900° (d), 1000° (e) and 1100 °C (f). Legends are expressed as followed: P:
phyllosilicates; F: feldspar; Cr: cristobalite; H: hematite; Ab: albite; An: anorthite; Fo: forsterite; Au: augite; D: diopside; W: wollastonite; L: labradorite; Py: pyroxene; Sa:
sanidine; En: enstatite; Ke: keldyshite; Ma: margarite.
440 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441
BCS:VA = 1:4 display a similar style as that of pristine BCS, the only
difference lies in the percentage of the mass loss is much smaller
than that of BCS at the higher temperatures. However, both sam-
ples show a huge mass change at the temperature of 520 °C. This
abrupt weight variation is an indicative of the removal of organic
carbon species and/or dehydroxylation [21]. This is why we set a
period of calcination at the temperature of 600 °C during the firing
of the FHCBs to allow the complete calcination.
3.2.2. Mineralogical phases analysis
To study the mineralogical transformations which occur in the
firing process, the X-ray diffractometric analyses were conducted
ex-situ on samples fired at different temperatures. Figs. 9a and 8b
show the XRD patterns of the pristine BCS and VA and those cal-
cined at 600 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C, 1000 °C and 1100 °C. Fig. 9c–f pre-
sent XRD patterns for mixtures of BCS + VA with different ratios. As
anticipated, there are many minerals present in these natural
occurring samples [22]. Herein, we only listed major phases that
were indexed to the prominent identified peaks. Due to the various
sorts of minerals that are to be annotated, we only named clay
minerals as phyllosilicates (P), which could be detected according
to the basal peaks below 2h = 10°. The pristine BCS is mainly com-
BCS
(a)
(c) 800ºC
(e) 1000ºC
Fig. 10. The SEM images of pristine BCS (a), VA (b) and mixtures of BCS + VA (BCS:VA = 7:3, wt./wt.) that were fired at different temperatures: 800 °C (c), 900 °C (d), 1000 °C
(e), and 1100 °C (f).
posed of phyllosilicates. After calcination, especially in cases of fir-
ing temperatures higher than 900 °C, new phases were produced
as albite (Ab), anorthite (An) and hematite (H). The Fe-containing
clay minerals transform into the oxide state of hematite. This is
to explain why the color of fired brick is always in reddish [13].
The VA was mainly composed of pyroxene in which augite (Au),
diopside (D), and wollastonite (W) were indexed. These phases
together with others (Ab and labradorite (L)) were detected in all
tested temperatures except for a broad hump observed in the
1100 °C fired sample. This hump peak suggests that amorphous
substances were produced at this temperature. When the mixture
of BCS + VA was calcined, e.g., the 800 °C (Fig. 9c), phyllosilicates
were still observed indicating the clay minerals have not been
completely decomposed at this temperatures [7]. However, new
phases of sanidine (Sa) and albite (Ab) appear in the matrix. Peaks
of the pyroxene (Py) and labradorite (L) become pronounced,
which means the content of both minerals are increased. When
the firing temperature is further increased (900° ? 1100 °C),
enstatite (En) starts to appear. The major minerals were found as
cristobalite (Cr), margarite (Ma), En and feldspar (Ab, An, and K-
feldspar) in these samples (Fig. 9e, f). A notable feature observed
in samples fired at 1100 °C with BCS:VA ratios (9:1 ? 4:1) is the
VA
(b)
(d) 900ºC
(f) 1100ºC
 P. Zhang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 141 (2017) 435–441
hump located in the range of 2h = 20°–40° (Fig. 9f). It can be inter-
preted by the formation of vitreous phases which are essentially
amorphous [23]. More vitreous phases were found in the clay-
rich fabricated samples. Summarizing the above diffractometric
analyses, we might derive a route as the transformation: clay min-
erals + volcanic glass ? feldspar (Sa, Ab, An, etc.) ? pyroxene (Au,
D, W, En, etc) ? melted substances ? vitreous solids (after cooling
down). This is the reverse evolution of vcolcanic lava according to
the melting points of minerals [22,24].
3.2.3. Micro-morphological study
Fig. 10a and b display the SEM images of pristine BSC and VA,
respectively. The BCS was observed as composed with filamentary
structures. This is the typical morphology of clay minerals. In the
VA image huge aggregates were found as coated with tiny parti-
cles. When the mixture of BCS + VA was heated to 800 °C, we found
numerous particles that were packed in a loose manner despite
some spindle-like crystals formed amongst. The solids were inter-
calated with each other to formulate frameworks. No essential tex-
tural changes were found as compared to the pristine BCS. In a
sense we assume the skeletal framework to be the reminiscent of
clays aggregations. This means the clay minerals were not decom-
posed completely at this temperature (800 °C). When the firing
temperature was increased to 900 °C or 1000 °C, as displayed in
Fig. 10d or e, tiny particles were found to grow into larger-sized
aggregations. Notably, the phyllosilicates were found to deform
and tend to clump. This observation is in accordance with previous
reported when clays were incorporated with industrial wastes
[25]. Afterwards, when the firing temperature is further improved
to 1100 °C, domains of crystallization and vitrification were
observed, and this were testified by the SEM image in Fig. 10f as
well as the optical polarization microscopy photograph in Fig. 7d.
It is indicated that either BCS or VA particles were completely sin-
tered at this temperature (1100 °C). Sometimes the melted liquid
was found in the matrix on condition that the temperature was
higher than 1100 °C. The dense matrix would certainly afford
higher strength properties, which has been confirmed by the pre-
vious mechanical measurements.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the fired hollow clay bricks have been success-
fully prepared from the black cotton soils and natural volcanic
ashes which were both collected from Kenya. The bricks fired with
BCS/VA mass ratio of 7:3–8:2 at temperatures of 1000–1050 °C
were found to exhibit brilliant compressive strength over
60 MPa. The linear shrinkage is less than 9% during sintering. The
bulk density of the fabricated bricks lies within 1.16–2.04 g/cm3
depending on the dosage of VA. The FHCBs fired at temperature
lower than 1100 °C have apparent porosity of about 30%, and this
high percentage of porosity affords a large capacity of water
absorption. The high porosity and water absorption capacity facil-
itate the FHCBs to be used in combination with concretes. The
measured physical-mechanical parameters meet the criterion of
MU10.0 which belongs to the first-class FHCBs according to the
GB/T 13545-2014. A route was proposed to describe the sintering
as to the mineralogical transformation: clay minerals + volcanic
glass ? feldspar (Sa, Ab, An, etc.) ? pyroxene (Au, D, W, En,
etc) ? melted substances ? vitreous solids intercalated with
microcrystallites, which is a reverse geological process of volcanic
lava evolution. The optical polarized microscope and SEM charac-
terization confirms the crystallization and vitrification during the
firing reaction. Although bubbles appear in the matrix, the mono-
lith was produced with dense structures at the firing temperature
441
of 1100 °C. The calcined matrix was confirmed to afford brilliant
strength property.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge financial supports by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51541207, U1607122), Group plat-
form construction project of the Key Laboratory of Automobile
Materials (Jilin University 451160301149, 451160102092), and
the project of China Communication and Construction Co. entitled
‘‘To Develop Sets of Techniques for Highway Construction in Black
Cotton Soil Regions, East African” (2013-ZJKJ-02).
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