EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF DRYING PARAMETERS OF WET BRICKS

Abstract

In this study, wet brick samples with different clay contents (40, 50 and 60%) were dried at variousdrying air temperatures (50, 60 and 70 o C) and velocities (1.13; 1.52; 1.66 m/s) in a laboratory scaletunnel dryer. The results indicated that increasing air temperature reduces drying time at any clay contentof the brick body. Drying times were obtained as 280 and 170 minutes at drying air temperatures of 50and 70 o C for sample with 40% clay content, respectively. Increasing clay percentage in wet brick bodyresulted in an increase of the drying time. At drying air conditions (50 o C, 1.13 m/s), the sample withthe lowest clay content (40%) had 280 minutes drying time whereas the highest clay content one (60%)had 315 minutes drying time. The drying air temperature also affected sample s drying shrinkage.Drying air temperatures increased from 50 to 70 o C , total drying shrinkage decreased from 5.90% to4.89% (40% clay content and 1.13 m/s air velocity), respectively. According to TS 2514, flexure strengthhas to be at least 1 MPa for dried bricks. When all test results were examined, they had been seen thatthe flexure strength values were quite higher than 1 MPa.