Design and Fabrication of Coal Ash Brick making machine and comparison of its mechanical properties with Conventional Clay Brick

Project Title

Design and Fabrication of Coal Ash Brick making machine and comparison of its mechanical properties with Conventional Clay Brick

Project Area of Specialization Mechatronics EngineeringProject Summary

With increasing use of coal in power sectors and other fields, a large amount of fly ash as solid waste is produced and its disposal is becoming a major issue. The large amount of Fly ash is causing air pollution. It also effects land fertility and contaminates underground water reservoir. To avoid this critical situation, Fly Ash must be used in effective way which not only reduce its disposal issue but also will help Pakistan to generate some revenue from it.

On the other hand our conventional clay brick is less in strength, high dead weight, high cost. Fly ash brick is one of the best option to use fly ash which is stronger than clay brick in strength and low in cost.

The purpose of our project is to fabricate fly ash brick making machine and testing mechanical properties of fly ash brick produced by that machine.

Project Objectives

• Study of different available designs which are being used in world for the production of Fly Ash Brick, determination of their working methods and components they use. and then selection of a design which is suitable economically and efficient enough to fulfill our project requirements.
• Optimization our design according to the availability of resources.
• Fabrication of economical brick making machine based on the optimized design.
• Development of different compositions of fly ash brick by varying percentage of fly ash, cement, sand, water and other additives. Performing of different mechanical tests on different fly ash brick that would produce by changing composition of fly ash brick and also conduct these tests on clay brick.
• Comparison of mechanical properties of developed composition of fly ash/coal ash bricks with clay brick
• Conclusions and recommendations

Project Implementation Method

In our project, economical coal ash brick making machine is to be fabricated by using pan mixture, mold with vibrating table and press mechanism. We will select the dimensions and fibrate pan mixture from cast iron, motor will connect to mix the material and set its RPMs according to requirement. We will design mold according to require dimension of brick & vibrator will also attach with this mold and fabricate them. We will also design and fabricate press mechanism to press our fly ash brick material in mold.

Simple schematic diagram of fly ash brick manufacturing process we want to achieve is given below:

Figure 4 (Diagrammatic representative of fly ash brick manufacturing process) (Christy & Tensingb, 2011)

We will make Fly Ash brick of different composition (means varying percentage of different raw materials such as fly ash, cement, gypsum, water, sand etc.) with the help of this machine. For different composition and their percentage amount for different type of fly ash bricks, we will consult an expert in this field.

After making different bricks we will perform different tests on our bricks to get mechanical properties. We will also perform same tests on conventional clay brick available in Pakistan and compare the results of different tests. After conducting different tests, we will be able to conclude that by which fly ash brick is better than conventional clay brick and we will also get optimum fly ash brick composition according to our requirement.

Different tests that we will perform to compare mechanical properties of fly ash brick with conventional brick are as follow:

• Hardness test on Rockwell Hardness tester
• Compressive strength test on UTM (Universal Testing Machine)
• Tensile strength test on UTM
• Bending strength test on UTM
• Toughness test
• Absorption test
• Shape test
• Efflorescence test

Benefits of the Project

The fly ash brick machine which we are about to fabricate is more economical and it would produce fly ash brick machine of following significance:

• High durability and strength
• Its quality does not decrease with time and retain its shape
• As time pass its strength increase
• It has superior sound and heat insulation
• It is resistant to acids and base
• Major significance is that it will reduce environmental waste by consumption of fly ash
• Protect fertile agricultural soil layer required for burnt clay brick
• Absorb less water and has very less salinity issues
• Its mixture has better bonding ability
• It has good weather resisting properties

It may not require plastering over its surface

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Material: Metal sheets, Cast iron, High carbon steel

Raw material for product: The optimum value obtained from these experiments is fly ash 41%, cement 25%, lime 15%, shell ash 4%, gypsum 3%, fiber 0.1%, water 11.5%, reducing admixture 0.5%.

Parts of Machine: Pan mixture, Vibrator, Press mechanism

We use manual lever system for press mechanism.

First pour raw material in mould, then press material with lever. Carefully remove mould and extract moulded brick from mould. Then dry the brick for 20-25 days in sun.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry ManufacturingOther Industries Energy , Finance Core Technology Clean TechOther Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Climate ActionRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	69500
Flyash Brick Machine	Equipment	1	60000	60000
Flyash And other Raw Material	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000
other raw materials	Miscellaneous	3	500	1500
travling	Miscellaneous	6	1000	6000