THERMAL COMPETITIVENESS OF FURNACE BRICKS MADE FROM AGGREGATION OF SAND AND CLAYS SOURCED FROM OVIA, AFUZE AND OGHARA IN NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

Furnace operation is dependent on the characteristics of clays and mode of production. Many fire bricks fail due to poor materials formulations during production. Also, reliance on foreign sourced fire bricks has been a bane to local production local fire bricks production in Nigeria. This paper analyzed thermal competitiveness of fire bricks made from clays sourced locally from Ovia, Afuze and Oghara townships in the Niger delta region of Nigeria. Thermal and physiochemical attributes of the fire bricks were studied based on the mix ratio formulation of clays, silica and water. Result obtained showed that the clays were of the alumina-silica group. Formulation mix ratio for Afuze and Oghara clays and silica was 3:2, while it Ovia clay to silica was 1:1. These ratios gave satisfactory characteristics of fire bricks made with the clays respectively in accordance to ASTM standards for fire bricks with operational temperatures of 10000C.