Using wood ash as a supplement in brick making

Chapter 1

Introduction

Cement has been one of the main components of the buildings in the whole world. Along with building
components is steel, which is carbon infused iron. In our experiment we plan to use carbon, from wood
ash, as a supplement in brick making to test if it will also improve the tensile strength of brick making. In
basis of iron and steel iron at its normal form is easily broken but with the addition of carbon the alloy
becomes stronger. Carbon, in its molecular form, is a special element due to it being capable of making
four bonds due to it having 4 electrons in its outer electron shell, in its most stable form. In relation to
other materials infused with carbon, all materials became stronger with the cost of an increase in the
absorption of heat

Objectives of the study:

• To determine if using carbon will increase the tensile strength of industrial cement

• To compare if varying amounts of carbon will make an effect in tensile strength of industrial
cement versus industrial cement without carbon

• To observe how carbon can affect the physical appearance of industrial cement

Hypothesis of the study:

• Carbon will have a good effect in the cement, thus further increasing its tensile strength.

Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

• Carbon

• Properties

Carbon has an affinity for bonding with other small atoms, including other
carbon atoms, via the formation of stable, covalent bonds. Despite the fact that it is
present in a vast number of compounds, carbon is weakly reactive compared to
other elements under normal conditions. At standard temperature and pressure, it
resists oxidation; it does not react with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, chlorine, or
any alkali metals. At higher temperatures, carbon will react with oxygen to give
carbon oxides, and metals to give metal carbides. Carbon has the ability to form
 very long chains of strong and stable interconnecting C-C bonds. This property
allows carbon to form an almost infinite number of compounds.

• Use in industrial materials

Impure carbon in the form of charcoal and coke is used in metal smelting. It is
particularly important in the iron and steel industries. Carbon is used in many
modern products including inks, rubber, steel, pencils, and more! Tens of millions of
artificial carbon compounds are useful for petroleum and plastics. Carbon is also the
basis of fuels such as coal and oil since both coal and oil are rich in carbon. Carbon
as graphite is a good lubricant. Carbon is also a key component of steel which makes
it stronger by distorting its crystal latice making it easier to rearrange and as carbon
is highly corrosion resistant. (Periodic Table, 2014)

• History

Carbon can be reacted upon with other elements to create other substances
such as charcoal when wood burns and then pyrolyzes to carbon. Historically at first,
charcoal was used in replacement for gunpowder and as gunpowder was now used,
charcoal was found used on other materials such as industry. The production of
wood charcoal in areas with an abundance of wood dates back to ancient times.The
modern process of carbonizing wood, either in small pieces or as sawdust in cast
iron retorts, is extensively practiced where wood is scarce, and also for the recovery
of valuable by-products (wood spirit, pyroligneous acid, wood tar), which the
process permits.(New World Encyclopedia, 2017)

• Concrete

a. Components

Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate and cement.

Cement acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and aggregates. Water is
needed to chemically react with the cement and too provide workability with the
concrete. The amount of water in the mix in pounds compared with the amount of
cement is called the water/cement ratio. The lower the ratio, the stronger the
concrete. Aggregates such as sand are often used and is considered as a fine
aggregate while gravel or crushed stone is a coarse aggregate.
 • Tensile strength

A measure of the ability of material to resist a force that tends to pull it apart. It
is expressed as the minimum tensile stress needed to split the material apart.
Concrete strength may vary from 2500-4000 psi for normal concrete such as
residential concrete while higher strength concretes may reach up to 10000 psi. 1
psi is equal to 6894.76N/m2.. (The Constructor, 2018)

• Factors for durability

The ability of concrete to withstand the conditions for which it is designed

without deterioration for a long period of years is known as durability. If cement is
reduced, then at fixed ratio the workability will be reduced leading to inadequate
compaction. However, if water is added to improve workability, water / cement
ratio increases and resulting in highly permeable material. Permeability is
considered the most important factor for durability. It can be noticed that higher
permeability is usually caused by higher porosity. Porosity is the quality of being
porous, or full of tiny holes. Liquids go right through things that have porosity
meaning that as more water is added to the mixture it will be less durable. Sufficient
cement, proper compaction and suitable concrete cover could provide a low
permeability concrete. (The Constructor, 2018).

• History

Concrete was, on its earliest records, found on 6500BC at regions in Syria and
Jordan. The people at that time used concrete floors, housing structures,
underground reservoirs and other constructions. At 3000BC, The Egyptians used mid
mixed with straw to bind dried bricks and at 600BC-200BC the romans have used
concrete in most of their constructions, their mixtures tended to be as durable as
bricks in modern times and today we have used concrete mainly on industrial
buildings with the first widespread use of Portland cement being used on England
and France in the 1900’s.(GIATEC-Roxanne Pepin, 2017)

• Ash

• Components

Ash is a combination of many inorganic species: oxides, phosphates, silicates,

chlorides. Temperature causes a great impact on the compositions of the ash.
 Different sources produce different types of ash such as wood ash which comes
from burning wood, cremation ash which comes from dead bodies and organic
materials, volcanic ash which is produced when volcanic eruption happens and
chemical reactions with the cool air turn it into ash and coal ash/fly ash which
comes from burnt coal/fuel is used in industry. (Quora, 2017).

• Sources and availability

Fly ash is produced by coal-fired electric and steam generating plants. Typically,
coal is pulverized and blown with air into the boiler's combustion chamber where it
immediately ignites, generating heat and producing a molten mineral residue.
Unfortunately with energy trends resulting in a move away from coal-fired plants,
fly ash availability has been significantly reduced which means that companies using
it will likely switch to a new replacement material. Outlook for the future may differ
as varying locations are aware of this and have been doing solutions to this such as
mining coal to support the scarce input to these power plants. (Precast, 2017).

• Use in industrial materials

Fly ash is a fine powder which is a byproduct of burning pulverized coal

in electric generation power plants. Fly ash is a pozzolan, a substance containing
aluminous and siliceous material that forms cement in the presence of water. The
fly ash produced by coal-fired power plants provides an excellent prime material
used in blended cement, mosaic tiles, and hollow blocks among others. Fly ash can
be an expensive replacement for Portland cement in concrete although using it
improves strength, segregation, and ease of pumping concrete. The rate of
substitution typically specified is 1 to 1 ½ pounds of fly ash to 1 pound of
cement. Fly ash can be used as prime material in blocks, paving or brickshowever,
one of the most important applications is PCC pavement. PCC pavements use a large
amount of concrete and substituting fly ash provides significant economic benefits.
Fly ash has also been used for paving roads and as embankment and mine fill. (The
Balance, 2018).
• Steel

• Components

Steel is mainly an alloy of iron and carbon.By far the most widely used material
for building the world’s infrastructure and industries. The major component of steel
is iron.Omitting very extreme cases, iron in its solid state is, like all other metals,
polycrystalline. A crystal is a well-ordered arrangement of atoms that can best be
pictured as spheres touching one another. They are ordered in planes, called
lattices, which penetrate one another in specific ways. For iron, the lattice
arrangement can best be visualized by a unit cube with eight iron atoms at its
corners. Important for the uniqueness of steel is the allotropy of iron. But iron is soft
and is generally not recommended as an engineering material so as the principal
method of strengthening it is by adding small amounts of carbon. Carbon, as stated
earlier, helps in strengthening iron as it disorients the bonds into something
stronger.(Brittanica-Edward F. Wente, E.F. Wondris, Jack Nutting; 2017)

• Uses

The construction industry uses about a quarter of the world’s steel, which can
be found in almost every building made by humans. Stainless steel finds use as
cutlery material, chef knices are made of different grades of knife steel and many
other accessories and tools in management are made of steel. Steel can also be
electronics found in generators and motors.(Sciencing-Doug Johnson, 2018)

• History

Steel in the business of industry was founded back in the ancient times of
Armenia approximately around 3500BC. But the use of which was only initiated on
the 1850’s by a man named Mr. Henry Bessemer, nearly at the same time another
person, Mr. William Kelly also started on the production and use of steel. The
process in which the first ever production of steel was carried out came to be known
as Bessemer Process. This helped the steel industries to produce steel in large
 quantities and also at comparatively low costs. By the year 1888, rapid growth and
demand were seen and was constant until about 1910.(Economy Watch, 2010)

• Gravel

• Uses

Gravel is made up of unconsolidated rock fragments. The most common types

of rock used in gravel are sandstone, limestone, and basalt. Gravel is used to make
concrete, for road construction, for mixing with asphalt, as construction fill, and in
the production of construction materials like concrete blocks, bricks, and pipes. It is
also used to make roofing shingles, used on icy roads in the winter, for railroad
ballast, and water filtration. Industrial sand and gravel is used to make glass, as
foundry sand and as abrasive sand. Gravel is also commonly used for drainage and
erosion control. (Minerals Education Coalition, 2018).

• An aggregate for Concrete

Aggregates are inert granular materials such as sand, gravel, or crushed stone
that, along with water and cement, are an essential ingredient in concrete.
Aggregates strongly influence concrete's freshly mixed and hardened properties,
mixture proportions, and economy. The type and ratio of the aggregate have factors
that determine their characteristics such as durability, shape, texture, absorption,
moisture, etc. Gravels constitute the majority of coarse aggregate used in
concrete with crushed stone making up most of the remainder. For a good concrete
mix, aggregates need to be clean, hard, strong particles free of absorbed chemicals
or coatings of clay and other fine materials that could cause the deterioration of
concrete. (Aggregates, 2018).

Chapter 3

Methodology

The ash is distributed into 5 different groups. Groups A, B, C, D, and, E. Where group E has the control
group of the experiment with the other groups containing 50 grams, 100 grams, 150 grams, and 200
grams respectively. The ash is added to the concrete mix (enter brand here) in separate plots of
10cmx20cmx10cm labeled accordingly. The concrete slabs are set to dry for 4 days. Afterwards these
slabs are tested (not sure how to test yet; to be tested in DPWH). Data is recorded.