Developing advanced techniques to reclaim existing end of service life (EoSL) bricks - An assessment of reuse technical viability



Zhou, Kan, Chen, Han-Mei ORCID: 0000-0002-6424-2055, Wang, Yong, Lam, Dennis, Ajayebi, Atta and Hopkinson, Peter
(2020) Developing advanced techniques to reclaim existing end of service life (EoSL) bricks - An assessment of reuse technical viability. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, 2. p. 100006.

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Abstract

Structural bricks are highly durable building products. However, brickwork is mostly demolished long before the end of its technical service life; the majority are crushed to form aggregate or else landfilled. Urban mining and circular economy are stimulating interest in the potential to recover structural products from end-of-service-life buildings for direct reuse. For brickwork, separating bricks from cement-based mortar, as opposed to lime-based mortar, without damage to bricks is a major barrier. This paper presents two advanced techniques based on saw-cutting and punching, to demonstrate the technical feasibility of brick reclamation. Compared to new bricks, reclaimed bricks have similar visual appearance and their compressive strength differs by −4.8% to +40%. Design formula for compressive strength of masonry in current codes can be applied to reclaimed bricks. The reclamation process achieves reclaim rate of over 95% and has significantly lower energy consumption, and carbon requirements (<1%) relative to new bricks.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Brickwork, Masonry, Reclaim, Circular economy, Reuse, End-of-Service-Life
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 27 Feb 2020 17:15
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:01
DOI: 10.1016/j.dibe.2020.100006
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3076051