Assessment of Ceramic Tiles Sludge as a Brick Manufacturing Material Sabry A. Ahmed, M.E. Metwally and S.E. Zakey Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University Zagazig, P.O. Box 44519, Egypt. Abstract— The ceramic tiles industry produces many wastes such as ceramic sludge, broken under quality tiles and ceramic dust. Recycling of such wastes in the construction industry shares in the environmental protection against the pollution caused by their accumulation; in addition to saving the great need of row materials required for such industry. In this study, the ceramic sludge (CS) was mixed with dune sand to produce sand-CS bricks at contents of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 100 % CS by the dry weight of the mix. The brick specimens made from these mixes were burned at 950 0 C for 6 hours and tested for compressive strength, unit weight and water absorption. Furthermore, two mixes with 70 and 100 % CS were selected to study the effect of burning temperature and time on the properties of corresponding bricks. Burning of these mixes specimens was carried out at 800, 900 and 950 0 C for 4, 6 and 8 hours. The results showed that the optimum content of CS was 70 % and the optimum burning was found at 950 0 C for 6 hours, at which the compressive strength, unit weight and water absorption of sand- CS bricks were 19.53 MPa, 1.37 ton/m 3 and 12.40 %, respectively. The corresponding values for bricks with 100 % CS were 15.20 MPa, 1.28 ton/m 3 and 14.15 %, respectively. Keywords— Ceramic Tiles Sludge; Sand-Ceramic Sludge Bricks; Burning Temperature And Time. I. INTRODUCTION The disposal of industrial wastes comprises one of the major worldwide environmental problems. In numerous countries, the limitations of number of dumping landfill sites and the general disposal methods have rendered the environment unfriendly. The use of industrial wastes in brick manufacturing has attracting growing interest of researcher in recent years and is becoming a common practice [1-5]. With increasing demands of the construction industry, bricks quality and cost become more important day by day in Egypt. In Egypt, every year huge growing amounts of ceramic wastes in the form of ceramic sludge, broken under quality tiles and ceramic dust are produced from ceramic tiles industry. Re-use of ceramic wastes in concrete and brick manufacturing showed a valuable results [6-10]. El–Fadaly et al. [11] investigated the possibility of recycling some ceramic wastes including cyclone dust, sludge and filter dust in manufacturing of floor tiles composed of 50 % clay, 45 % feldspar and 5 % talc. They were added to the mix at 2.5 to 10 % of its dry weight. The tested specimens were pressed at 225 bar then fired in an industrial kiln at 1190 ºC for 35 minutes. The results showed that the physico-mechanical properties of tiles were enhanced by the addition of cyclone dust, while deteriorated by the addition of sludge although they were still within the acceptable range of such products. On the other hand, the addition of filter dust to the floor tiles constituents had nearly no effect on their physico-mechanical properties. Andreola et al. [12] re-used the ceramic glazing sludge deriving during the purification process of waste-water obtained from the glazing tile phase in the manufacturing of a high sintered floor/wall covering tiles. Results of technological tests and scanning (SEM) analysis showed a dense microstructure with crystalline phases similar to commercial glass-ceramic. Also, the product was achieved with energy saving due to lowering the firing temperatures to 1000°C instead of 1200°C. Abdel-Ghafour [13] used the ceramic sludge solid waste as a replacement of clay to produce green building bricks. He found that incorporating 15% ceramic sludge to clay decreased the plasticity coefficient with insensitive behavior upon drying; in addition to suitable physical and mechanical properties of the fired bricks. Nandi et al. [14] studied the possibility of using ceramic sludge resulting from a waste-water treatment of ceramic tiles and the recycled glass to obtain a ceramic engobe for the production of single-fire ceramic tiles. Seven mixes were prepared with 20-80 % by weight ceramic sludge and 12-48 % recycled glass in combination with calcite, dolomite, ulexite and saltpeter as raw materials. The results showed that the incorporation of these wastes would allow for the obtainment of ceramic frits for producing ceramic engobes. The present paper aims to study the effect of adding ceramic sludge on the properties of sand bricks for economical and environmental benefits. Dune sand–CS bricks were produced with 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 100 % CS of the dry weight then burned at 950 0 C for 6 hours. To achieve the aim, the properties of bricks in terms of compressive strength, unit weight and water absorption were measured according to British standard procedure. Furthermore, the effect of the burning temperature of 800, 900 and 950 0 C and burning time of 4, 6 and 8 hours on the properties of sand-CS bricks were measured at 70 and 100 % CS. II. EXPERMINTAL WORK The materials used in this study were sand and ceramic sludge. The sand was dune sand from Sinai desert, it had a yellow color and its particles were very fine; passing through sieve No. 30. Its specific gravity and fineness modulus were 2.8 and 2.5, respectively. The chemical composition of sand is shown in Table I. The ceramic sludge (CS) is one of the ceramic tiles industry wastes, which produced during washing of burned tiles by water through special pressed water filters. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 http://www.ijert.org IJERTV5IS100278 Vol. 5 Issue 10, October-2016 (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.) Published by : www.ijert.org 376