Comparison study of common brick with S+WPSA brick

Abstract

Common bricks in construction industry are divided into two types, namely as sand brick in white colour and clay brick in red colour. Cement brick or sand brick made from sand mixed with cement and formed into rectangular cubes or hollow rectangular cubes. Cement bricks are generally used for the construction of houses or small buildings as it is cheaper and often used for a less loaded structures. Brick wall in building is considered to be an important component in the construction due to its high cost. In addition, extensive cement and brick production plants contribute to air and noise pollution. Material recruitment process on hill to make cement also cause geological and landslide problems. S+WPSA Brick using sand and Waste Paper Sludge Ash (WPSA) mixture are solid rectangular cubes designed to be a cheaper but with similar compressive strength to common bricks and can overcome all the problems. This paper illustrates an experiment study and investigates the results of pundit test, skid resistance test and compressive strength test of common brick and S+WPSA brick. S+WPSA Brick indicates a more homogeneous, less void and good in quality compared to clay brick and sand brick. Besides that, the S+WPSA Brick introduces smoother surface compared to the sand bricks and clay brick in the market. Clay brick recorded the highest compressive strength of 15.17 MPa when compared with S+WPSA brick of 5.287 MPa and sand brick of 1.76 MPa.