Publication: Effect of different body composition and firing temperature on properties of ceramic tile
Date
2021-05-01
Authors
Juhari, Muhammad Syahir
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Abstract
Porcelain tiles have excellent mechanical strength with low porosity (almost
zero water absorption), durability, chemical and stain resistance. Due to these excellent
properties, porcelain tiles had successfully captured new market segments: floor and
wall, adding to the strong demand in building construction. However, porcelain tile is
reported to have high thermal conductivity and low solar reflectance which is reduce
the thermal comfort and subsequently not suitable for building construction. Therefore,
a low thermal conductivity and high solar reflectance porcelain tiles is fabricated to
improve its thermal comfort by altering the composition and firing temperature of the
porcelain tiles. The aim of this study is to study the effect of different body
composition and firing temperature on the properties of porcelain tiles. The new body
compositions of porcelain tile powder were milled and compacted at 18 MPa to obtain
rectangular shape samples. The compacted samples were fired at 50°C/min up to
1200°C and soaked for 15 minutes before cooling down to room temperature. Among
C1, C2 and C3 body composition, C3 show lowest fired shrinkage (7.75%), lowest
bulk density (2.30g/cm3) and highest MOR (59.71 MPa) values and at the same time
have the lowest thermal conductivity (1.27 W/mk) and highest solar reflectance (80%
in near infrared region).Thermal conductivity and solar reflectance is govern by phase
formation in which C3 composition reduced by 33% of thermal conductivity and
increases of solar reflectance up to 80% (near infrared region) compared with control
sample due to the formation of low thermal conductivity phase (cordierite). Since C3
sample shows the optimum properties compared with other samples, the firing
temperature of the sample were altered at 1150 °C, 1175 °C and 1225 °C to observe
whether it worth to improve the properties of porcelain tiles. Selection of these firing
temperature were done by plotting the vitrification curve. It was observed that the
thermal conductivity of C3 samples decreases after lowering the firing temperature to
1150°C. The solar reflectance also increases after lowering the firing temperature.
Although C3 sample gives low thermal conductivity and higher solar reflectance
values, the MOR values obtained from this firing temperature were reduced in
comparison with the one fired at 1200°C firing temperature. Also, C3 sample fired at
1150 °C showed the highest water absorption value which is not appropriate for
construction application. Thus, it was concluded that the porcelain tiles made using C3
composition and fired at 1200°C are a suitable candidate to fabricate porcelain tiles
with good properties (high MOR, low water absorption, low thermal conductivity and
high solar reflectance) for building construction.