Investigation on the Mineralogical Phase of Ancient Brick Samples of Kathmandu Valley (Nepal) Using XRD and Ftir Analysis

Abstract

The total eight clay brick samples including five archaeologically importance samples from different historical sites and three samples from more than a century old buildings of Kathmandu valley were collected and their mineralogical phases were characterized using X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic methods in this study. Mineralogical phases existed in these archaeological and ancient clay bricks are identified as quartz, feldspars, spinel, muscovite, margarite and hematite in accordance with the powder diffraction standard files. The degree of the disappearance of feldspars phase and appearance of the spinel phase in all the brick samples is found to be different indicating that the firing temperature applied to produce these brick specimens should not be same. The firing temperature applied for the production of the eight clay brick samples should be in the range of 900°-1000° C. Most of the archaeological clay brick samples used in this study should be produced by firing at the high-temperature comparison with those brick samples used in old buildings of Kathmandu valley.

Study on the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Ancient Clay Brick Samples of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

“…1 (Ghale 2018). It is meaningful to mention here that the mineralogical phase of these seven ancient clay brick samples was reported to be consisted mainly of quartz, feldspars, spinel, margarite, hematite and muscovite type of mica minerals from previous works (Ghale et al 2018). In this study, the physical properties of water absorption capacity, apparent porosity and bulk density of the analyzed clay brick samples were estimated using following equations (1), (2) and (3) (ASTM C20-00 2015), respectively, were D is the weight of brick sample in dry condition (g), S is the weight of brick sample in saturated condition (g) and V is volume of outer sides (cm 3 ) of the brick sample specimens.…”

“…The durability assessment of different types of clay bricks is mainly based on their technical physico-sintering and mechanical properties. However, such technical properties of the archaeological clay brick samples of Kathmandu valley are not reported in scientific communities, although mineralogy of the archaeological bricks (Ghale et al 2018), fired clay bricks at different temperatures (Bohara et al 2018) and ceramic tiles (Buthathoki et al 2018a, 2018b) were recently reported by some of the present researchers in Nepal. It was reported that the mineralogical phases existed in the archaeological clay brick samples collected from Kathmandu valley were identified as quartz, feldspars, spinel, muscovite type of mica mineral and hematite, and such clay bricks were considered to be fired at 900-1000 °C for their production (Ghale et al 2018).…”

“…However, such technical properties of the archaeological clay brick samples of Kathmandu valley are not reported in scientific communities, although mineralogy of the archaeological bricks (Ghale et al 2018), fired clay bricks at different temperatures (Bohara et al 2018) and ceramic tiles (Buthathoki et al 2018a, 2018b) were recently reported by some of the present researchers in Nepal. It was reported that the mineralogical phases existed in the archaeological clay brick samples collected from Kathmandu valley were identified as quartz, feldspars, spinel, muscovite type of mica mineral and hematite, and such clay bricks were considered to be fired at 900-1000 °C for their production (Ghale et al 2018). Considering these facts, the present research work was focused to carry impact assessments on three different physico-sintering properties of water absorption capacity, apparent porosity, bulk density and one mechanical property of the compressive strength of nine archaeologically important ancient clay brick samples using ASTM Standards (ASTM C20-00 2015; ASTM C1424-15 2015) to know relation between the physico-sintering and mechanical properties of the ancient clay bricks.…”

Study of Characteristics of Bricks Produced in Kathmandu, Nepal

“…The clay with high sand makes brick less cohesive, weak and broken corner. It was reported that type of clay brick samples collected from Kathmandu valley were identified as quartz, feldspars, mica mineral and hematite, and such clay bricks are considered to be fired at 900-1000°C [22]. Improper mixing proportion of clay particles creates shrinkage or expansion.…”

Investigation of the firing temperature effects on clay brick sample; Part-I: Mineralogical phase characterization

“…The quality assessment of different types of clay bricks is based on their mineralogical, physicosintering and mechanical properties. However, such technical properties of the clay bricks [19,20] and ceramic tiles [21,22] of Nepal were studied by very few research groups in Nepal. Considering these facts, the present research work is focused to carry out an investigation of the firing temperature effect on the mineralogical phases of the fired clay brick samples by XRD and FTIR analysis.…”