Building s constructional elements should be able to protect

Building\'s constructional elements should be able to protect residents from the negative effect of noise caused by surroundings [19]. The World Health Organization estimates that each year more than one million Healthy Life Years are lost in the European Union member states and other Western European countries, solely because of traffic noise [20] prevailing in cities. The world urban sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator is expected to increase from 3.6 billion in 2011 to 6.3 billion in 2050. By mid-century the world urban population will likely be the same size as the world\'s total population was in 2002 [21]. Although growing cities with urbanization offers numerous economic advantages, people who live in cities are vulnerable to disturbances due to noise exposures, especially in the frequency range of 1–8 kHz that are prevailing in cities. This environmental noise can interfere with communication, recreation, or concentration. Environmental noise, especially that caused by transportation means, is viewed as a significant cause of sleep disturbances [22]. Sleep disturbance is considered the most deleterious non-auditory effect because of its impact on quality of life and daytime performance [23]. Although no attentions has given to sound insulation properties of walling materials, noise insulated walling material will reduce deterioration of psychological and mental health of the population. Thermal performance and acoustic response of bricks are rarely reported [24], although these properties have great influence on occupants comfort. Investigation of these performances is increasingly important in order to characterise clay bricks, especially produced with waste materials. Objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of the waste rice husk ash (RHA), produced as a residual of brick firing process, on structural properties, thermal and acoustic performances of fired clay bricks manufactured in an industrial scale plant.
Materials and methods
Results and discussion
Conclusions Rice husk ash (RHA), a residual from the brick firing process has SiO2, which are amorphous, can be a SiO2 provider for clay materials. With increasing waste RHA content in clay mixture, a lighter brick than the conventional brick was produced. The optimum amount of the waste RHA that could be replaced with the clay to produce fired clay bricks was 4% by weight. For the 4% RHA blended bricks, the compressive strength was found as 3.55 N/mm2, indicating a 32.7% improvement in the strength compared to that of the conventional fired clay brick. Water absorption of 4% waste RHA blended clay bricks was found to be 19%, satisfying the recommended level for moderate weathering resistance.
Introduction World-wide yearly production of rice is 742 million tons, and approximately 148 million tons of rice husk is produced [1]. For every ton of husk, approximately 0.19ton of ash is generated. Rice husk ash (RHA) is produced by burning rice husk. Generally, every ton of husk produces about 0.19ton of ash [2], [3]. Rice husk has a high calorific value [4], [5]. Amorphous silica is mostly concentrated at the surfaces of the rice husk and not within the husk itself [6].RHA is an agricultural by-product available in large quantities causing detrimental effect due to crop residue burning. By utilization of RHA in SCC greener and economical concrete is achieved. RHA an agriculture by-product being in abundance, having high surface area and pozzolanic in nature, can be effectively used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM). SCC is High Performance Concrete which saves time and energy during construction. Using RHA as SCM as partial replacement of cement helps to achieve greener and economical concrete as it reduces the cost of SCC. Further, use of RHA results in environmental benefit as lesser quantity of it would have to be land-filled, leading to reduction in environmental pollution.