SUILDING DIGEST. RAL BUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE; ‘INDIA i feks in India are made from’ ‘alluvial, black tton and red soils,” In some parts.of thie’ country? ‘oils contain limo. nodutes of-variouis sizes and ition. When bricks are made and fired’ from calcium oxide is formed within. the brick bor aor Asecting Lame Bu ure of clay and firing temperature are some of factors which affect the bursting of bricks. the eae: is the possibility of reaction to’ form mpounds which do not expand on contact with Water and hence lesser bursting in bricks containing impure limestones. No lime bursting is observed with Kankar containing less than 50 per cent calcium earbonate. Kankar containing between 50-60 per cent alcium carbonate may not be harmful provided His size is reduced below 2.mm, and bricks are fired Ata minimum temperature, of 900°C. The amount of kankar or lime nodules present in a Sil affects the bursting of bricks to a great extent, The higher the nodule content the greater are the Chances of bursting of bricks. ‘Vatied opinions have been expressed regarding the fect of fineness of kankar, but in general, reduction Ipatticle size helps ih_the prevention’ of lime burst- Ing, However, when kankar of high carbonate cont | Sht.are present in sandy soils, grinding upto 0.63 mm ‘hot eftective unless the firing temperature is raised 40 1000" C. On the other_hahd,' with low carbonate Kankar, reduction in_size below 2mm_prevents the isting of bricks to_a great extent, Cracking is also orein bricks from sandy soll than from clayey soils, LIME BURSTING IN BRICKS : ie Probably due’ to poor strength of bricks from’ saridy soils. Cracking. is more. in:black cotton soil’ bricks than those made from alluvial soils, Harder firing has also been: recommended as one of’ the remedies of lime bursting. Thus bricks’may be fired at as, high a temperature. (more than. 1000%) when the carbonate content of kankar is high,(more, than 70 per cent). Wide variation of temperature in different: parts of, the kiln oxeates difliculties. Firing ) of bricks at high temperature alone cannot, therefore; be relied upon unlése.bricks are fired within a narrow temperature range in different pasts’of the Kiln: Methods of Preventing Lime Bursting = In addition to the methods described so far, tw lother methods can be recommended for the preven tion ‘of lime bursting. in. bricks, )) Docking, nd! ii) Addition of sodium chloride, Docking Ww ’ ‘ ‘The process of dipping ftéslily ‘fired ‘bricks in water is known as ‘docking’. Soaking the bricks in water for ten minutes has the desired effect. In some kilns water is sprayed on a stack of bricks to be docked, but the effect of docking is varied. It does not Prevent disintegration in all cases. Ip some of them. bursting is, accelerated, while in others. it delays the period of cracking. Addition of, Common Salt Sodium chloride is effective in preventing lime burst- ing_upto_a_limited extent. Generally, 15 _kg_of common salt is sufficient for_ one thousand bricks, The mechanism by which sodium chloride renders the lime particles harmless is still not very clear. A probable reason could be a reaction between chloride salts and carbonate in kankar, Other chlorides such ‘as that of NH,, Ca, Mg, Fe and Al can also be used for the prevention of lime blowing. Field Procedure to be adopted ‘The kankar separated from soil should first be tested by putting few drops.of, dilute, hydrochloric, acid. Ifeffervescence takes place it is likely to give trouble, ‘Washing of soil is necessary when it contains substa- tial amount of kankar in size bigger than 4 mm, Soils can be washed by the ‘ghol’ method, which is Practised on a large scale in Indore and other areas of Madhya Pradesh. In this method, the soil is first mixed with water in tanks called ‘ghol tanks’ and screened through baskets called ‘jhitnis’, Coarse Particles of kankar are allowed to settle at the bottom of the tank, The clay water mix is then allowed to Pass in the other tanks by gravity and allowed to settle: The excess superniatent) water is) removed and sediment is brought’ to ‘a consistency. suitable for moulding bricks, Sometimes when kankar size is small ‘separation of Kankar from clay ‘becomes difficult. In such cases, other methods as described before are to be used cither singly or'inconjunction‘with others. In the field: trials: carried“out by the’ Institute, sodium chloride’ method ‘hay been‘used’ ia Conjunction with docking to get the best results, If hydrochloric .acid. test. shows. effervescence, the following ficld test cari-be performed. Sufficient soil is collected to make about one thou- sand bricks. Soil js divided into two parts, To one Part, 7.5 kg of common salt is added. About five hundred bricks from each part of the soil are moul- ded and fired ina Bulls kiln or'a clamp kiln in the usual maniiet.Two huidred ‘avid fifty bricks from ‘eiich of, the treated and untreated. -bricks.are docked 80d obit aiysttane oddest There is a deniana for short notes summarising avallable information on selected building topics for the use of Engineers and Architects in India. To meet thé need this Institute is bringing out a series of Building Digests from time to time and the Present one is the 113th in the series, Readers are requested to send to the Institute their ‘experience of adopting the suggestions given in this Digest, WHC 691.421.007.4| a foe oret Batemgan melon Lakshmi Printors, Saharanpur (lndiay in water for a period of ten minutes. The entire J Of bricks is then exposed to atmosphere for a periog Of two to four weeks: The results obtained will shoy the treatment necessary to avoid bursting. If any treatment given above is not able to avoid bursting. then the soil should be washed in ‘ghol tank! to reduce kankar content and the above proces repeated. Accelerated Test for Lime Bursting. For quick assessment, the accelerated tests deve, loped in the Institute can be, performed. ‘The test jy carried out in an electric oven. Two. dishes full of water are placed In two lower compartments of thy} oven to ensure presence of sufficient quantity of water init during the test, Brick samples to be) tested are placed in the U compartment. The) temperature of the oven is raised to 120° C. The) specimens are taken out of the oven after 12 hour, and examined for cracking. It may be pointed oul that water in the liquid phase should not be allowed: tocome in contact with the test specimens’ duri the test Economics of the Addition of Common Salt ‘The cost of the addition of sodium chloride depends upon the rate at which it is available at a particular Place. At Surat, the rate is Rs. 8.00 per 100 kg, The cost of 15 kg of salt required for 1000 bricks is Rs, 1.20. Thus, this additional cost for the prevem ion of lime blowing in bricks could be considered nominal, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, India, February, 1975.