ASSESSMENT OF ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF CLAY SOILS AS BRICK

AND TILES MATERIALS IN HAMEDAN, WEST OF IRAN

G.R. Khanlari*, A. Namazi, Y. Abdi Lor

Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract
The clay minerals are a group of fine-grained minerals varieties that are of major significance to the
engineer. Clay minerals comprise an essential portion of the soils and therefore yield a strong influence on
soils behavior. The term clay in the geological literature has been used to pertain either to a size friction or to
a group of minerals. The clay minerals consist of fine major groups (kaolinite, halloysite, illite, vermiculite and
smectite). In this research, engineering properties of clay soils of Hamedan province, west of Iran have been
considered for using as brick production. From an engineering point of view, the study of clay soils in
Hamedan is significant for two major reasons:
(1) They are an important building material with numerous applications to construction and (2) it was
performing with the aims of response to the market request and also job preparing for workless peoples. It
should be noted that Lalejin is a city of Hamedan province and it is a famous center of Tiles producer in Iran.
The productions of Lalejin are exported to the other countries. In this research, 36 soil samples from
different parts of Hamedan province were selected and physical, chemical and mechanical tests have been
carried out on the samples. Based on the results, 13 soil samples have passed the tests based on the standards
and then, they were selected as suitable soils for brick and tiles production.

Keywords: clay minerals, brick, tile, engineering properties, soils, Hamedan, Lalejin

1 INTRODUCTION
Bricks have been used over 5000 years as a construction materials throughout the world [1]. Today,
the bricks are still being used for the same purposes. As urbanization expands, demand for bricks gradually
increases. Brick is an important construction material and widely used in rural areas of Hamadan Province. Brick
is produced by firing of clay with sand in special ovens or kilns after it is mixing with water and molded [2].
Although, brick is a building material of excellent durability, the quality of brick is still major concern
in most places of the world. Clay soils are used in production of brick and tiles have two important roles in
the conformities of bricks and tiles in standards. The raw material of bricks that forms an important part of
soil industry can be found in several regions of Hamedan province. The demand for bricks has increased
significantly in parallel with the rapid development in construction sector, and therefore, efforts to meet the
brick demand have gained speed.
Mechanical and mineralogical features are more important than chemical features in the choice of
soils used for construction of brick [2]. Materials that can be used in brick-tile industry should also have
features such as low or medium plasticity, low swelling shrinking and moisture as well. If the soil used is

*
Correspondence to: khanlari_reza@yahoo.com

Maarten A. T. M. Broekmans (ed.), Proceedings of the 10th International Congress 369

for Applied Mineralogy (ICAM), DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-27682-8_44,
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
rich in kaolinite, illite, chlorite, talc, vermiculite and quartz, it causes the material to have the features
mentioned above.
Based on the experimental results, the most appropriate clay minerals for brick and tile, production is
illite. The distance between the layers in illite does not increase or decrease, so it does not swell or shrink.
Smectite group minerals as raw materials causes the ingredient to hold too much water and swell, and
therefore leads to extreme plasticity and shrinking in volume during firing. Therefore, to avoid shrinkage and
cracking, raw material should not contain smectite type of clay or it should be at a minimum level. However,
the vermiculite group minerals have little plasticity and shrinking potential in comparison with the smectite
group minerals.
The technical properties expected from bricks are adequate resistance to pressure, little change in size,
smoothness in shape, lightness, and endurance to external factors. The quality of a brick changes according to
composition of raw material used (gravel and clay), production and firing method and also the temperature.
The aim of this study was to determine whether the raw materials in regions are suitable for brick production
with respect to technological, chemical and mineralogical features. In addition, three brick samples from each
soil type were produced, in order to investigate their compliance with the standards. In this regard, physical
and mechanical properties of clay soils were determined based on the ISIRI-1162 (Institute of Standards and
Industrial Research of Iran).

2 GEOLOGICAL SETTING
The study area lies between longitudes 4745_ and 4905_E and latitudes 3415_ and 3515_N. The
studied area occupies more than 100 km2, with a mean altitude of 1644 m above sea level (Figure 1). The
climate of the study area is semi-arid; the annual average precipitation is ~321 mm, of which about 37%
occurs during winter. The Sanandaj-Sirjan zone, which extends over 1300 km, is a major structural with
NW-SE trend in southwest of Iran. The Hamadan area as a part of Sanandaj-Sirjan is characterized by a
predominance of metamorphic rocks of both sedimentary and magmatic origins and the presence of the huge
Alvand granitoid complex [3]. The metamorphic rocks constitute an assemblage of high to low metamorphic
grades rocks from sedimentary sequences that have been affected by a more or less developed
tectonometamorphic events. Basement rocks in the studied area consist of granites, schist, plagioclase,
dolomite, and limestone (Figure 2) [4].

3 MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1 General
The samples were selected based on the preliminary field investigations from the study areas in the
Hamedan Province. After getting the samples, they were dried at the laboratory and then be crushed. After
those, soils were completely homogeneous and required samples for testing have been prepared. The samples
were including of a 1kg soil for the chemical analyses of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence
(XRF) and about 3 kg soil for the physical tests and 15 kg soil in order to produce at least three bricks.

3.2 X-ray diffraction

This technique has been used to determine the crystalline structure of clay minerals since the early
1900s. An experiment performed with X-rays established the three prevailing concepts of XRD that (1)
atomic particles within crystals are arranged in orderly, three-dimensional, repeating patterns; (2) that these
regular arrangements have plane spacing of approximately the same dimensions as the wavelength of X-rays

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and therefore, because diffraction does take place, that (3) X-rays are wavelike in nature, as opposed to
corpuscular [5]. In determine to XRD analysis, initially the particle size distribution test was performed in
general accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials [6]. The soil passed form #200 sieve
(0.075 m) was saved and used for sample preparation of the XRD testing. All of the samples in this project
were prepared using a qualitative analysis of clay minerals. Approximately 510 g of each soil sample passing
#200 sieve have been sent for testing to the Bu-Ali Sina University XRD Laboratory.

3.3 X-ray fluorescence

XRF is a device for measuring wavelength and intensity of emitted fluorescence from various element
species in sample material to determine the identity and amount. XRF device has been used extensively in
various sciences. Due to high speed and lack of chemicals materials used, this method is cheap way to other
analysis methods. Like XRD analysis, the soil passed from #200 sieves (0.075 m) was used for sample
preparation in the XRF testing. Therefore, the amount of 1025 g of each soil sample passed from #200
sieves, have been sent to Kansaran Binaloud mining company in Tehran for testing.

3.4 Atterberg limits

The liquid limit and plastic limit of soils (accompany with the shrinkage limit) are often collectively
referred to the Atterberg limits. These limits distinguished the boundaries of the several consistency states of
plastic soils. In order to perform these tests, only on that portion of a soil that passes the 425-m (No. 40)
sieve, should be used [7].
In this research, 36 soil samples from different parts of Hamedan province were selected and
physical, chemical and mechanical tests have been carried out on them. Based on the results, 13 soil samples
have passed the tests based on the standards and they were selected as suitable soils for brick and tiles
construction. Based on the results of physical, chemical and mechanical tests have been carried out on the
samples, 13 soil samples have passed the tests based on the international standards and they were selected as
suitable soils for brick and tiles construction (Figure 1). In this study, SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, K2O
and Na2O contents, and the amount of firing loss were applied according to the principles stated by ISIRI-
1162. The mineralogical analysis of the samples were done using the method stated in Jackson [8], and were
determined using an X-ray diffractometer. Liquid and plastic limits were determined according to ASTM
(D4318, 2005). Evaluation of the results has been carried out based on the ISIRI-1162 standard.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Two main factors that control the appropriate properties of clay soils for produce of brick and tile are
as follows: (1) the chemical properties of clay soils and (2) the physical properties of clay soils.
The chemical analysis of the soils reveals mineralogical composition and clay type and its composition
indirectly. The chemical analysis of clay minerals generally helps to determine the type of clay mineral. To
determine whether clay minerals can be used in soil product industry or not, or what type of soil production
industry can be used. It is necessary to know their silica, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, potassium and
sulfate content, and the amount of loss after firing. Table 1 presents the results of the chemical analysis of the
samples and the limit values.
The arithmetic mean values of the results of the material taken from the operation field match the
limits stated in ISIRI-1162 standard. In addition, high Fe2O3 content, which can also be observed
morphologically, removes the color problem of this material. While the amount of lime, which is viewed as an
important problem in brick and tile production, is preferred at <9.5%, it varied between 9.6% and 17.6% in
the samples.

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 The results of this investigations indicated that bricks should not have a high CaO and MgO content;
otherwise, it leads to wearing of the bricks in contacting water [9]. Manganese and lime analysis were done
according to ISIRI-1162 standard. Results show that no cracks, breaking off or scaling on the brick samples
have been observed.
The minerals in the samples were determined by comparing the mineralogy of the samples from the
study field using data obtained from standard minerals. The analysis of clay fractions of the samples revealed
that in calcite and quartz type minerals were dominant. Since smectite as a clay mineral is not present in most
of these soils, it can be concluding that the mineralogical structure of the clay soils used in production of
bricks and tiles is suitable for this object. According to Mitchell [10], in soils which are dominant in illite,
chlorite type clay mineral, Atterberg limits (liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index) are much lower when
compared to the soils which are dominant in other clays (montmorillonite, etc.), and the plastic limit ranges
between 19% and 40%, and the liquid limit ranges between 30% and 90%.
The mechanical analysis shows that the materials used in this study, have low plastic limit and liquid
limit values. According to the results, the studied clays had the following average values; 29.33 liquid limit,
15.65 plastic limits and 11.79 plasticity index (Table 2).
Based on the ISIRI-1162, the results of investigations indicated that soils with plasticity index between
8 and 25 and clay soils with plasticity limit between 17 and 30 are suitable for brick production. When these
values are considered, the plastic limit values and the liquid limit values of the samples are low. This shows
that the difference between plastic limit values and liquid limit values are not high under condition of low
plasticity index.
It should be noted that distribution of grain size of used soil particles has been done based on ASTM
standard (1993b, D422-63). The particle size percentages of soils used are 22.53% sand, 57.07% silt and
18.69% clay. All clay soils, which have the ability to be shaped, which become sinter to resist every type of
climatic condition when fired, and whose tile form color, are suitable for brick-tile production [2].
In addition to the above indices, uniaxial compressive strength and water absorption percentage were
also calculated for produced bricks. According to ISIRI-7, appropriate percentage of water absorption of
bricks should be between 8% and 20% [11]. In addition, uniaxial compressive strength shouldnt be <80
kg/cm2 for production of bricks. Results of tests conducted show that for the majority of samples, the values
of uniaxial compressive strength and water absorption are in ranges defined by standard.
The results of uniaxial compressive strength test and water absorption percentage are show in Table 3.
Figures 3 and 4 show the variation of UCS and water absorption percentage for brick samples, respectively.

5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of this research, it was found that the mineralogical, chemical and mechanical
properties of the raw materials from the Hamedan clay deposits are appropriate for brick and tile production.
With respect to technological properties such as compressive strength and water absorption, quality of the
bricks produced from these materials, are accordance with the relevant standards.

6 REFERENCES
[1] Karaman, S, Gunal, H, and Ersahin, S (2006): Assessment of clay bricks compressive strength using
quantitative values of color components. Journal of Construction and Building Materials (20): 348354.
[2] Karaman, S, and Esmeray, A (2006): Determining the conformity to standards of clay deposits in
Tokat-Zile Region as raw material in brick-tile production. KSU Journal of Science and Engineering
(9/1): 130134.

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[3] Sepahi, A (1999): Petrology of the Alvand plutonic complex with special reference on granitoids.
Ph.D. Thesis, Tarbiat-Moallem University, Tehran, Iran (in Persian).
[4] Baharifar, A, Moinevaziri, H, Bellon, H, and Pique, A (2004): The crystalline complexes of Hamadan
(Sanandaj-Sirjan zone, western Iran): Metasedimentary Mezoic sequences affected by Late Cretaceous
tectono-metamorphic and plutonic events. Comptes Rendus Geosciences (336): 14431452.
[5] Carato, AB (2003): Mineralogical Study of Davis Mine, Rowe, Massachusetts, Using XRD Diffraction
Techniques. Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.
[6] ASTM D422-93 (1993): Standard Method for Particle Size Analysis of Soils (Standard). American
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), West-Conshoshocken, Pennsylvania. Annual Book of
ASTM Standards (04.08): 9399.
[7] ASTM D4318-05 (2005): Standard Test Methods for Liquid Limit Plastic Limit, and Plasticity Index
of Soils. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), West-Conshoshocken, Pennsylvania.
[8] Jackson, ML (1975): Soil Chemical Analysis. Advanced Course, Department of Soil Science,
University of Madison, Madison, Wisconsin: pp. 121.
[9] Grim, RE (1962): Applied Clay Mineralogy. McGraw-Hill, New York: pp. 422.
[10] Mitchell, JK (1976): Fundamentals of Soil Behavior. Wiley, New York: 8499.
[11] ISIRI 7 (2006): Clay brick Specification and Test Method. Institute of Standards and Industrial
Research of Iran, 4th revision, No. 7 (In Persian).
[12] ISIRI 1162 (2005): Soil Soil Clay for Making Clay Brick Specification and Test Method. Institute
of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran, 2nd revision (in Persian).

TABLE 1: Results of XRF analysis and the chemical compositions of the samples compositions.
Samples Chemical properties
SiO2 (%) Al2O3 (%) F2O3 (%) CaO (%) MgO (%) K2O (%) Na2O (%) Burning losses (%)
H1 48.2 11.9 6.9 11.8 3.9 3.1 0.75 8.9
H4 50.9 14 7.8 11.5 3 2.7 0.5 7.2
H5 46.5 12.4 6.6 14.1 3.6 2.5 0.65 4.6
H11 51.2 13.2 7.1 9.8 4.6 2.2 1.3 9.1
H12 43.6 10.6 6.6 17.3 4.7 2.2 1.2 6.3
H14 48.6 13 7.3 9.6 4.7 2.9 1.5 5.2
H15, H24 43 12.9 6.9 16.3 3.7 2.6 0.6 7.7
H24 53.4 12.2 6.3 10.4 3.2 2.8 1.1 1.6
H28 44.3 10.2 6.1 15.1 4.1 2.4 1.3 6.2
H29 43.2 11.3 5.9 17.6 5.2 2.3 0.9 5.6
H30 49.5 11.5 6.7 17.5 6.3 2.5 1.1 7.8
H32 52.8 11.6 5.9 10.5 2.5 2.2 2.1 1.1
H33 50.5 12.1 6.8 10.7 3.5 2.3 1.1 5.8
Limit values (%) 42.764.5 16.320.6 2.87.0 0.79.5 0.86.2 0.61.7 06 6.311.5

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 TABLE 2: Geotechnical properties of the samples.
Samples Liquid Plastic Plasticity Particle size (%) Texture
limit limit (PL) index (PI) class
(LL) (%) (%)
(%)
Sand Silt Clay
H1 34.6 15 19.6 25 43 32 CL
H4 32.3 20 12.3 26 52 22 CL
H5 29 19 10 30 58 12 CL
H11 41.9 18 23.9 10 60 30 CL
H12 30.1 21.5 8.6 12 65 23 CL
H14 37.9 25 12.9 8 79 13 CL
H15 34.5 25 9.5 20 48 30 CL
H24 NP NP NP 38 58 4
H28 32 21.5 11.1 40 54 6 CL
H29 33 17.5 15.5 13 64 23 CL
H30 46.5 24.5 21.9 4 56 40 CL
H32 NP NP NP 55 43 2
H33 29.5 21.5 8 22 62 16 CL
Xavg 29.33 15.65 11.79 22.53 57.07 18.69

TABLE 3: Mechanical properties of produced bricks from Hamedan clays.

Parameters Samples
H1 H4 H5 H11 H12 H14 H15 H24 H28 H29 H30 H32 H33
UCS (kg/cm2) 199 142.2 165 95.4 84.5 113.3 123.1 103.2 103.4 126.3 75.23 92.56 109.7
Water absorption 17.7 15.8 18.4 19.6 22.5 20.8 22.9 16.1 16.2 22.6 25.2 17.5 17.9
(%)

Figure 1: Location of the collected samples from the study area.

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 Figure 2: Simplified geological map of study area.

200
180
160
140
UCS (kg/cm2)

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
H1 H4 H5 H11 H12 H14 H15 H24 H28 H29 H30 H32 H33
SAMPLES

Figure 3: Uniaxial compressive strength of produced bricks from Hamedan clays.

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 30
WATER ABSORPTION (%)

25

20

15

10

0
H1 H4 H5 H11 H12 H14 H15 H24 H28 H29 H30 H32 H33
SAMPLES

Figure 4: Water absorption percentage of produced bricks from Hamedan clays.

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