Sustainable Reuse of Inorganic Materials in Eco-Friendly Clay Bricks: Special Focus on Mechanical and Durability Assessment

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of wastes, namely plastic wastes, iron wire, and cast-iron powder, as a potential substitute material on the behavior of environmental-friendly sintered clay bricks to reduce environmental pollution and production cost. Twenty groups of mixtures were tested to obtain precise results for the compressive strength, flexural strength, weight per unit area, apparent porosity, freeze-thaw resistance, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), water absorption, and initial rate of absorption tests. The results indicated that no single trend could be identified to measure the effect of additional materials on the improvement or deterioration of mechanical and durability properties. The results revealed that an increment in the content of plastic particles up to 4% by weight resulted in a decline in water absorption, whereas an increase in the content of coarse plastic particles raised water absorption. It was found that specimens including regular iron wire and cast-iron powder demonstrated higher compressive strength rather than the specimens with plastic and irregular. The results of the freeze-thaw test revealed that most of the specimens satisfied the requirement of ASTM, and those incorporating cast-iron powder had the best results. Due to the low specific gravity of plastic wastes, the weight per unit area of specimens mixed with them was lower than that of specimens with iron wire and cast-iron powder, leading toward a reduction in the seismic weight of buildings. It concludes that the best improvement in the flexural strength of bricks was achieved by a 40% replacement of cast-iron powder, compared with the reference specimen.