BRICKS FOR MASONRY: 1.

Compressive Strength of Bricks: The compressive strength of bricks broadly indicates the overall quality of the raw material and its manufacturing process. The bricks shall conform to IS 1077. The minimum compressive strength when tested flat shall not be less than 8.4 MPa for individual bricks and 10.5 MPa for average of 5 specimen. 2. Procedure: 2.1 Remove unevenness observed in the bed faces of bricks to provide two smooth and parallel faces by grinding. Immerse in water at room temperature for 24 hours. Remove the specimen and drain out any surplus moisture at room temperature. Fill the frog and all voids in the bed face flush with cement mortar 1:3 (clean coarse sand of grade 3 mm and down) . Store under the damp jute bags for 24 hours, followed by immersion in clean water for 3 days. Remove and wipe out any traces of moisture. 2.2 Place the specimen with flat faces horizontal, and mortar filled face facing upwards between two 3 ply plywood sheets each of 3 mm thickness and carefully centered between plates of testing machine . Apply load axially at a uniform rate of 14 N/mm2 per minute till failure. The load at failure is considered the maximum load at which the specimen fails to produce any further increase in the indicator reading on the testing machine. Observations are recorded as follows. (Ref: IS :3495 Part 1-1992)
S.No. Length of bed face No.1-mm Width of bed face No.1-mm Area of bed face No.1sqmm Length of bed face No.2-mm Width of bed face No.2mm Area of bed face No.2sqmm Average Area of bed face -sqmm Maximum load at failure in Newtons Compressive strength=Maximum load/Average area of bed faces.

3. Water Absorption of Bricks: Bricks which absorb more water than normal (12% to 20% of their weight) will produce weaker masonry, as they will draw water from the mortar and make it dry. 3.1 Procedure: Dry the specimen in a ventilated oven at a temperature of 105 oC to 115oC till it attains substantially constant mass .Cool the specimen to room temperature and obtain its weight M1 . Do not use specimen which are warm to touch. 3.2 Immerse completely dried specimen in clean water at room temperature of 27+/(-) 2o for 24 hours. Remove the specimen and wipe out any traces of water with a damp cloth and weigh the specimen. Complete the weighing 3 minutes after the specimen has been removed from water (M2). Water absorption, percent by mass after 24 hour immersion in cold water is given by the following formula: {(M2- M1) / M1} x100

3.3 Observation Sheet: Water absorption of Bricks: S.No. Weight of dried Weight of specimen Water Absorption percent by mass specimen cooled at after immersion in = air temperature -M1 water for 24 h M2 { ( M2- M1 ) / M1 } x100 SAND FOR PLASTER : IS 1542-1977 : 1. Compressive strength of mortar cubes 1:6, shall not be less than 30kgf/sqcm at 28 days. 2. Amount of water for gauging shall be that required to give a flow between 110-115 with 25 drops in 15 seconds (IS 1727-1967, IS 2250-1980, Is 2386-1963). 3. Grading: IS Sieve 9.50 mm 4.75 mm 2.36 mm 1.18 mm 600 micron 300 micron 150 micron Percentage Passing. 100 95-100 95-100 90-100 80-100 20-65 0-15 (0-20 for crushed stone sands)

Note 1: Tolerance of 5% is allowed except on 600 micron and finer sieves. Note 2: For crushed stone sands, permissible limit on 150 micron sieve is increased to 20%.