Strength Analysis of Heat Treated Clay and Rice Husk Mixture

Abstract

The strength analysis of Heat Treated Clay and Rice Husk Mixture was to ascertain the threshold temperature and the strength of the sample for construction work. The strength of the material was analysed to determine the threshold temperature to produce a satisfactory construction material from Rice Husk Ash and clay.  The materials used in this study include rice husk, clay, sieve shaker kiln, mould, muffle furnace, compression machine and Schmidt hammer. The rice husk was collected from the rice mill and dried under the sun and burnt in kiln at the temperature of 500o Celsius to 700o Celsius to become white grey and sieved with sieve shaker 15m to obtain smooth and fine ash and mixed with clay in different ratios of 500 : 500, 600 : 400, 700 : 300, 800 : 200 and 900 : 100 in grams, ash and clay respectively, and the mixture was introduced into moulds and was taken to unconfined compressive machine to determine the untrained strength and the stress-strain characteristic of the sample after that, the samples was left for four days to dry under room temperature and weigh before it was  heated in the furnace to ascertained the rate of water moisture in each of  the samples. From the furnace, the samples were reweighed to ascertained the water contain if at all there is, and at what rate.  Schmidt hammer was applied for impact test in mega paschal (Mpa) after heating. It was noticed that the mixture ratio of 900g ash: 100g clay gave the optimum strength for building and construction work. From the test results, compressive test sample E with the mixture of 900g ash and 100g clay shows that crushing load of 30.46Kn, strength of the material proves to be 3.33Nmm2, density of the material is 1245gm3, impact test result 22.7Mpa.