Relation between Compressive Strength of Baked Clay Cubes and Cylinders

Abstract

Reinforced Baked Clay (RBC) seems to be potential alternative of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) for construction of low cost houses. In order to utilize RBC as a construction material for buildings, it is necessary to understand compression behaviour of baked clay. In this paper, relation between cube crushing strength and cylinder strength of baked clay is presented. For this purpose, clay beams were cast in a mould and compacted at a pressure of 6 MPa. The clay beams were dried and fired in a kiln at a temperature of 900?C. Cubes of 150 mm size were sawed from a baked clay beam. Cylinders of 150 mm diameter and 300 mm height were cut, from another baked clay beam, using core cutter machine. Both the cubes and cylinders were tested for compressive strength in Universal Testing Machine. The results showed that the cube crushing strength of baked clay was 25 MPa and the ratio of the compressive strength of the cylinders and the cubes was found to be 0.6. Suggestions for improvement of compressive strength of baked clay cylinders are also discussed.