Author(s)

Khurshed Alam, Robiul Islam, Sudipta Saha, Nurul Islam, Syed Azharul Islam

Department of Physics, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh.
Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, AERE, Savar, Bangladesh.

Neutron radiography (NR) technique has been adopted to study the internal structure and quality of the KAB bricks made by Hoffman kiln method. Thermal neutron radiography facility installed at the tangential beam port of 3 MW TRIGA Mark-II Research Reactor, AERE, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh is used in the present study. Measurements were made to determine the internal structure and quality of the automated machine made environmentally friendly brick sample. In this case, optical density/gray values of the neutron radiographic images of the sample have been measured. From these measurements, the porosity, water penetrating height, water penetrating behavior, initial rapid absorption of water (IRA), elemental distribution/homogeneity and incremental water intrusion area in the sample have been found. From the observation of different properties, it is seen that, homogeneity of the Hoffman kiln brick KAB is not perfectly homogeneous and contains small internal porosity; the incremental water intrusion area is very poor, and the water penetrating height through the two edges is higher than the middle part; the initial rapid absorption (IRA) rate is also very poor and the water penetrating behavior of the samples is different as like as stair, capillary, wave and zigzag shape. From these points of view, it is concluded that the quality of the environmentally friendly brick KAB is better. The results obtained and conclusion made in this study can only be compared to the properties of bricks produced under similar conditions with similar raw materials.

Neutron Radiography Technique; Water Penetrating Height/Behavior; IRA

Alam, K. , Islam, R. , Saha, S. , Islam, N. and Islam, S. (2013) Quality Study of Automated Machine Made Environmentally Friendly Brick (KAB) Sample Using Film Neutron Radiography Technique. Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research, 1, 141-152. doi: 10.4236/jbcpr.2013.14015.