Lecture

Bricks & Masonry: Materials, Manufacture, and Historical Context

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In course

MSE-322: Building materials + Laboratory work

Science des matériaux de construction non métalliques les plus utilisés et plus particulièrement des matériaux cimentaires (béton). Composition chimique, fabrication et comportement sur la durée. ...

Description

This lecture explores the strength, beauty, and durability of bricks and masonry, discussing their historical significance from the oldest bricks in history to the construction of iconic monuments like the Eiffel Tower. It delves into the raw materials, manufacturing processes, and properties of bricks, including capillary absorption, frost resistance, and mechanical properties. Additionally, it covers the types of bricks such as terracotta, sand-lime, and aerated concrete bricks, highlighting their uses and characteristics. The lecture also examines the composition of clay soils, the role of water in clay behavior, and the different types of clay minerals. Overall, it provides a comprehensive overview of the essential aspects related to bricks and masonry.

Instructors (3)

Karen Scrivener

De nationalité anglaise, Karen Scrivener est née en 1958. Au cours de sa carrière, ses travaux et sa recherche traitaient des domaines suivants: Identification du développement microstucturale pendant l'hydratation du ciment. Elaboration d'une approche multitechnique pour étudier la microstucture des ciments et bétons, avec accent sur la quantification par analyse des images d'électrons retrodiffusés. Caractérisation de l'auréole de transition de la pâte de ciment autour des granulats. Compréhension des processus de dégardation des bétons, en particulier le gonflement lié à la formation de l'éttringite retardée dans les bétons étuvés.

Lionel Sofia

Emmanuelle Anne Boehm Courjault

Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Solène Anne-Lise Albinski Courses Building materials + Laboratory work MSE-322 Materials science of common non metallic building materials, with emphasis on cementitious materials (concrete). Chemical composition, fabrication and behaviour in service Materials MSE-171 Introduction course of material science applied to usual building materials, especially concrete and metals. Description of their fabrication, mechanical and

Official source

Related concepts (21)

Brick

A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a unit primarily composed of clay, but is now also used informally to denote units made of other materials or other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region, and are produced in bulk quantities.

Clay mineral

Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2Si2O5(OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay minerals form in the presence of water and have been important to life, and many theories of abiogenesis involve them. They are important constituents of soils, and have been useful to humans since ancient times in agriculture and manufacturing.

Clay

Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al2Si2O5(OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet but can be hardened through firing. Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide. Clay is the oldest known ceramic material. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay and used it for making pottery.

Quick clay

Quick clay, also known as Leda clay and Champlain Sea clay in Canada, is any of several distinctively sensitive glaciomarine clays found in Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States and other locations around the world. The clay is so unstable that when a mass of quick clay is subjected to sufficient stress, the material behavior may drastically change from that of a particulate material to that of a watery fluid.

Construction

Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations, and comes from Latin constructio (from com- "together" and struere "to pile up") and Old French construction. To construct is the verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built, the nature of its structure. In its most widely used context, construction covers the processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life.

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