Scientific publications
Michele Stella Ngono Mbenti
Marie Thérèse Nanga Bineli
Arnaud Ngo’o Ze
*
Cyriaque Rodrigue Kaze
Roger Firmin Donald Ntouala
Open Ceramics
The Meiganga lateritic clays and termite mounds were characterized for their use as construction materials. The six collected samples were subjected to mineralogical, geochemical, and physico-mechanical tests. Quartz, kaolinite, hematite, goethite, gibbsite, muscovite, and anatase are the main minerals in raw materials, while after firing at 1050 °C, mullite is formed. The SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 ratio greater than 1 indicates a high SiO 2 content, which is consistent with the presence of quartz as an associate mineral to kaolinite. Considering linear shrinkage globally less than 5 % and flexural and compressive strengths greater than 2 and 7 MPa, respectively, four clay materials are suitable to produce bricks at all the studied temperatures, whereas two others only after firing at 1050 °C. As the studied characteristics do not depend on the nature of the material, exploring termite mound material in the Meiganga area would provide additional good-quality material to make up for any deficit that might arise.
