MS ISO/IEC TR 10037 : 1995

MALAYSIAN

STANDARD
MS 76 : 1972 ICS : 91.100.15

SPECIFICATION FOR BRICKS AND BLOCKS OF FIRED BRICKEARTH, CLAY OR SHALE PART 2 : METRIC UNITS

STANDARDS & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MALAYSIA Copyright

SIRIM. No part of this publication may be photocopied or otherwise reproduced without the prior permission in writing of SIRIM

SPECIFICATION FOR

BRICKS AND BLOCKS OF FIRED BRICKEARTH, CLAY OR SHALE PART 2. METRIC UNITS

MS 76:1972

Copyright

MS 76: 1972 This Malaysian Standard, which had been approved by the Civil Engineering and Building Construction Industry Standards Committee and endorsed by the Standards Council, was published under the authority of the Standards Council in June, 1972. SIM wishes to draw attention to the fact that this Malaysian Standard does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Malaysian Standards are subject to periodical review to keep abreast of progress in the industries concerned. Suggestions for improvements will be recorded and in due course brought to the notice of the Committee charged with the revision of the Standards to which they refer,

The following SIM references relate to the work on this standard: Committee Reference: Draft for Comment: SIM/I/7/018 D21(ISC 7)

MS 76: 1972

CONTENTS
Page Committee Representation Foreword
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7 8

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SPECIFICATIQN 1. Scope Chapter 1. Bricks and Blocks for Walling Section One: General 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. General Definitions Formats
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114 14 16 18 18 20 20 20 21

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Patterns Compliance for Dimensions (Bricks)

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Compliance for Dimensions (Blocks) Compliance for Out of Squareness (Blocks)

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Compliance for Bowing or Twisting (Blocks) Strength and Absorption

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Section Two: Specific Clauses Sub-Section A: Facing and Common Bricks and Blocks of Ordinary Quality 11. 12. 13. 14. Finish Strength
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23 23 24 24 3

Soluble Salts Content Liability to Efflorescence

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MS 76: 1972 Sub-Section B: Facing and Common Bricks and. Blocks of Special Quality

15.
16. 17. 18.

Finish Strength

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24 24

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Soluble Salts Content Liability to Efflorescence Sub-Section C:

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Bricks and Blocks for Internal Walls

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19. 20. 211. 22.

Finish Strength

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25 25 26 26

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Soluble Salts Content Liability to Elrlorescence

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Chapter 2. Hollow Blocks for Structural Floors and Roofs. 23. 24. General Formats
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26
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26 28 28 28 28 29 29

25.
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

Compliance for Dimensions

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Compliance for Out of Squareness Compliance for Bowing or Twisting Finish Strength
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Soluble Salts Content Liability to Efflorescence

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MS 76: 1972 Chapter 3. Sampling Procedure and Test Methods 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. General Samples
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Method of Sampling

31 34 34 34 35 35 45 48 53 55 55 56 57 64 17 17 18 19 21 22

Determination of Dimension (Bricks) Determination of Dimension (Blocks)

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Deterinination of Out of Squareness (Blocks) Determination of Compressive Strength Water Absorption Tests Soluble Salts Analysis Elllorcsccnce Compliance
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Determination of Bowing or Twisting (Blocks)

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Test
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Procedure in the Event of Dispute Cost of Testing

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Appendix A. Appendix B. Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6.

Application of Works Quality Control Scheme for Dimensions

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Choice of Limits and Acceptance Clauses for Dimensions of Bricks

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Standard Formats (Bricks) Standard Formats (Blocks)

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Dimensional Tolerances (Bricks) Dimensional Tolerances (B!ocks) Strength and Absorption 5

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Maximum Deviations on Dimensions

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MS 76: 1972 Table 7. Table 8. Table 9. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Standard Formats (Floor Blocks)
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27 63 63 66 67 68 68 69 70

Limits for Use With Gauge Board

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Limits for Use With Alternative Scale for Gauge Board

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Arrangements for Measuring Clay Building Bricks (a) for Length, (b) for Width, (c) for Depth
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Determination of Out of Squareness and Bowing or Twisting of Hollow Blocks Apparatus for Vacuum Absorption Test Apparatus for Efliorescence Test
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Gauge Board for Measuring Bricks Double Bricks Referred to in Note 3, Clause 39 (d)(iv)
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MS 76: 1972

Committee Representation
The Civil Engineering and Building Construction Industry Standards Committee under whose supervision this Malaysian Standard was prepared, comprises representatives from the following Government Ministries, trade commerce and manufacturer Association and scientific and professional bodies. Association of Consulting Engineers (Malaysia) Cement & Concrete Association, Malaysia Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Institution of Engineers (Malaysia) Institution of Surveyors, Malaysia Malaysian Institute of Architects Malaysian Scientific Association Master Builders Association Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Ministry of Commerce and Industry Ministry of Education Ministry of Technology Research, & Local Government Ministry of Works, Posts and Telecommunications (Public Works Department) United Chambers of Commerce University of Malaysia

MS 76: 1972

FOREWORD
This Malaysian Standard has been prepared under the authority of the Civil Engineering and Building Construction Industry Standards Committee. It is based on BS 3921: Part 2: 1969 which has been published in metric units, in view of the fact that the country is contemplating changing over to metric. In the interim, however, values given in imperial units within brackets may be used. But one system of units should be adhered to throughout for consistency, and the values within brackets have been extracted from the corresponding BS 3921 : 1965 which has become Part 1 of the corresponding British Standard. The technical difficulties in the way of a standard which shall give useful guidance on the quality of all the many varieties of fired clay bricks and blocks are so great that it is still not possible to specify completely every point of importance. Nevertheless, the committee considered that the standard should provide as much guidance as possible, even though some of the quality clauses will require revision in the light of further knowledge. The main issues raised by this standard are discussed in the following paragraphs. Attempts to ascertain the quality of clay bricks and blocks by infrequent sampling and testing to a specification of isolated batches are subject to uncertainty because the properties of clay products, like those of other manufactured products, are liable to variations over a long period, as a result of changes in the naturally variable raw materials, as well as process variations of products made at any one time, it is therefore good manufacturing technique to sample and test products regularly and to record the results in the form of control charts on the principles discussed in BS 2564, Control chart technique when manufacturing to a specification and in Appendices A and B. Such 8

MS 76: 1972 charts display the variation of properties with time and thus give more information about a product than can be obtained by tests made on a single occasion. It is recommended that manufacturers should make their control charts available for inspection by users and that users should recognize their value. This recommendation shall not preclude users from taking samples in accordance with Clauses 33 and 34 for testing in accordance with the remaining Clauses of Chapter 3. Any such samples that users may require shall be taken before the bricks or blocks are built into work, especially where tests for soluble salts content or liability to efflorescence are in question. The treatment of strength in the specific clauses reflects the fact, still not as widely appreciated as it should be, that strength is not necessarily an index of durability and may be very misleading if used as such. The main use of the strength test is as a guide to permissible pressure in brickwork. In the past, the permissible pressures on brickwork have been calculated, in accordance with British Standard CPI 11: 1948, Structural recommendations for loadbearing walls, in terms of the mean strength of samples of twelve bricks taken at random and of the mortar composition. Variation in the strength of bricks and mortar and in workmanship have been allowed for by using high load factors. Recently, calculated loadbearing brickwork has begun to be treated like other structural engineering materials and designed to finer limits. Where this is to be done, it is desirable that the bricks used should be manufactured under a system of quality control on a sound statistical basis which enables the manufacturer to satisfy the user that he can supply consignments such that, when a sample is tested in accordance with Clause 39, there is a specified probability, normally of not more than I in 40, that the arithmetic mean of the sample will be below a specified limit of compressive strength. 9

MS 76: 1972 The water absorption test also is given less prominence than has often been accorded to it. A low water absorption figure can be used in defining engineering bricks and bricks for damp-proof courses but water absorption, like strength, is not a general index of durability. With many, but not all, clays, the more durable bricks absorb less water than those that are not so durable, so long as a single variety of bricks is considered. No limit can be set, however, that will discriminate generally between durable and non-durable bricks. Recent work has shown that the saturation coefficient, or ratio or 24-how cold absorption to a total absorption by the boiling or vacuum methods, is less useful as an index of durability than was formerly thought. II has not, therefore, been included. The vacuum method has been specified as an alternative to the boiling method, since some laboratories regard it as more convenient and the results are approximately equivalent. The method of measuring 24-hour cold absorption has also been included in Clause 40, since this may occasionally he found useful for works control, but no specific requirements based on this test are included in Section Two of Chapter 1. The committee has given serious consideration to the problem of framing a specification which is based on the knowledge that bricks containing undue amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium suiphates are liable to produce complaints about walls built with them. The complaints may be of two kinds: sulphate expansion of Portland cement mortar and efflorescence on brickwork. Although cause and effect have been established broadly, conS siderable difficulty has arisen when trying to decide what are suitable maximum limits for the permissible contents or calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and sulphate individually or in toto. In some circumstances it would appear that bricks with a total soluble sulphate 10

MS 76: 1972 content of well under 1% have given severe trouble in sulphate expansion: in others, bricks with soluble salt contents of as much as three times this amount have been used without arousing comment. The same sort of evidence has been forthcoming on particular salts, e g potassium sulphate. For instance there has been complete absence of complaints over extended periods when bricks containing 0.25% soluble potassium have been used. Elsewhere trouble has arisen with bricks containing less than 0.25%. In these circumstances it has been considered unreasonable to set a maximum of 0.25% of soluble potassium for bricks in general. The explanation of this conflicting evidence remains a matter of conjecture. It is well known, for example, that for sulphate expansion to occur it is necessary to have soluble suiphates, tricalcium aluminate, and water in juxtaposition. Thus, sulphate expansion does not occur in brickwork where the bricks have negligible sulphate content, or the mortar has a low triealcium aluminate content, as in mortar made from sulphate-resisting cement, or when water is largely excluded by sound methods of building construction. Thus it is easy to visualize service and other conditions in which bricks of less salt content could have performed badly. There are many other factors too, which obscure this issue. The incidence of efflorescence is subject to similar uncertainties. it has, however, been observed that the sulphates of sodium or magnesium are more troublesome than those of calcium or potassium. Bearing all these factors in mind the committee felt that, for bricks of ordiiiary quality (Clause 3.1 (c)(ii) ), although the etilorescence test should be retained, it could not recommend the setting of limits for the content of soluble salts. 11

MS 76: 1972 However, for bricks of special quality (Clause 3.! (c)(iii), for which higher standards of manufacture can be reasonably expected, the committee felt that the maximum quantity of soluble salts permissible should be stated, although the limits must necessarily be tentative. The provision in Clause 3.1 (d)(i) that bricks containing up to 25% of holes are to be considered as solid requires explanation It has been included because it is known that bricks with not more than this modest degree of perforation can be treated in the same way as bricks without holes when calculating permissible pressures on brickwork from the strengths of the bricks determined in accordance with Clause 39, and this artifice should ensure that such bricks are automatically so treated. It need not be concluded that similar relations between the strength of bricks and the strength of brickwork do not subsist when the bricks contain more than 25% of holes, but where a designer feels any doubt it is always open to him to require tests on walls in accordance with MS * Structural Recomniendations for Loadbearing Walls. Possibly on a future revision of the codes it may be more appropriate to deal with this situation in the code rather than in the standard, but on the present occasion the method adopted has seemed expendient. The method of overall measurement of 24 bricks, which wt~s used in BS 657 in checking conformity with the dimensional clauses of the standard, has been retained for standard bricks and is recommended for non-standard bricks. The minimum strength for blocks for structural floors and roofs, specified in Clause 29, differs from the minimum strength specified for blocks for walling because the method of testing and the method of expressing the results are different. The limit of 14 MNIm2 (2,000
*

In Preparation. 12

MS 76: 1972 lbf/in2) is one that can reasonably be attained by most manufacturers. It is lower than the limit 17.0 MN/rn2 (2,500 lbf/in2) set in BS 1190, but it is open to the structural engineer who wishes to take the strength of the blocks into consideration in his design to specify a higher strength where this is likely to be useful.

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