The effect of sludge water treatment plant residuals on the properties of compressed brick

The focus of this study is on the production of compressed bricks which contains sludge water treatment plant (SWTP) residuals obtained from SAJ. The main objective of this study is to utilise and incorporate discarded material (SWTP) in the form of residual solution to produce compressed bricks. This serves as one of the recycling effortsto conservethe environment. This study determined the optimum mix based on a mix ratio of 1:2:4 (cement: sand: soil) in the production of compressed bricks where 5 different mixes were investigated i.e. 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30% of water treatment plant residue solution. The production of the compressed bricks is in accordance with the Malaysian Standard MS 7.6: 1972 and British Standard BS 3921: 1985 - Compressive Strength & Water Absorption. After being moulded and air dried,the cured bricks were subjected to compression tests and water absorption tests. Based on the tests conducted, it was found that 20% of water treatment plant residue solution which is equivalent to 50% of soil content replacement with a mix composition of [10: cement] [20: sand] [20: soil] [20: water treatment plant residue solution] is the optimum mix. It was also observed that the bricks containing SWTP residuals were lighter in weight compared to the control specimens