Abstract            Volume:10  Issue-7  Year-2022         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

This paper deals with the clay materials of the city of Ati, chief town of the Batha Province. The aim of this study is to determine the geotechnical characteristics and mineralogical composition of clays for their use as fired bricks. For this purpose, various methods and means of identification were used, including: grain size, Atterberg limits, density parameters, compressive strength and mineralogical and geochemical analyses. The macroscopic description of the soils in the study area shows that almost all of these soils are clayey materials, with a gray, black, light gray, mottled and yellowish color, but we also note the presence of silts. It emerges from the geotechnical characterization that the materials of the quarries of the city of Ati are fine soils with an average percentage of 60% of passers by the sieve of 80µm. According to the GTR classification, these soils belong to the class of clay soils type A and have a low plasticity to plastic behavior according to the values of the plasticity index (12.2 to 23%). The values of the density of the solid grains vary from 2.17 to 2.30g/cm³ with an average of 2.23g/cm³. These values indicate that the density of the studied soils is medium and the particles are moderately compacted. The compressive strength of the mud bricks increases with traditional firing. From 2.1 to 2.8 MPa for unfired bricks, it increases from 2.8 to 4.8 MPa for fired bricks. Mineralogical analysis showed that the soils in the study area are composed mainly of quartz and a clayey mixture of kaolinite, smectite and illite with a predominance of kaolinites in most of the samples analyzed. The geochemistry is characterized by the dominance of potassium over calcium and the relative abundance of elements related to granitic detritic minerals: titanium, zirconium. This characterization shows that the soils of the quarries of the city of Ati are favorable for the manufacture of quality bricks, briquettes and even tiles and other ceramic objects.

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