A new approach in environmentally friendly brick production: Use of rice husk

It is known that the most used wall material in the construction industry is brick. In this study, it was aimed to produce sustainable bricks by using rice husk which is an agricultural waste, in brick production to improve the thermal insulation properties of bricks and to increase the preferability of brick, which is a natural material, in the sector. In this context, 13.5 cm lightweight brick samples were produced in a factory environment with real dimensions by adding rice husks at volumetric proportions of 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 12.5%, and 15% to the brick clay. During the firing process, the rice husks in the brick were burned and created voids in the brick body. The properties of brick samples, including plasticity water, drying shrinkage, firing loss, porosity, density, water absorption, compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and freeze-thaw resistance, were investigated. In the TS 825 standard, the thermal conductivity value for vertically perforated bricks is specified as 0.5 W/m·K. Considering this value, the thermal conductivity of the concrete block (ÇK) additive has been reduced to as low as 0.238 W/m·K. This demonstrates the significant impact of the concrete block additive on thermal insulation performance. In conclusion, rice husk can be used in the production of lightweight and thermal insulation bricks.