Prospección geológica y caracterización de arcillas de la zona de Arapicos para la fabricación de ladrillos artesanales

Abstract

This research proposes: Performs the geological prospecting and characterization of clays from the area of Arapicos for the manufacture of handmade bricks; in order to find clays with optimal characteristics that allow to improve the quality of bricks, and thus reduce percentages of loss by fracturing and formulate a manufacturing process based on one in a mixture of 4 raw materials of the area. To achieve this objective, 6 samples of clays were collected, in the physical and chemical tests, the ideal percentage was established for the content of silica, iron, aluminum, and magnesium. To this end, 5 mixtures of 6000gr were prepared, representing 100% of the raw material to be manufactured, the bricks were correlated and characterized once cooked at the temperature of the artisanal oven. Additionally, 3 bricks manufactured by the artisan were characterized and the results were compared with those obtained in the investigation, with the mixture of 60% of clay M03 of the Tena formation, 20% of residual clay M04 of the Mera formation, 15%, silica and 5% of sawdust, the data obtained reveal that the mix is optimally achieving a simple compressive strength of 12.14Mpa, classifying the artisan brick according to the NEC 297 standard as type C, with the mixture of 4 raw materials improved 96% in quality. This improvement is due to the enrichment of its minerals and its index of the plasticity of the evolving clays and undergoes changes in their mineralogical structure when subjected to high elevated temperatures and which contribute to the formation of its more resistant cemented matrix, which is typical of clays used in the investigation.

Keywords: GEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION - CLAYS - ARTISAN BRICKS