Recycling trachyte waste from the quarry to the brick industry: effects on physical and mechanical properties, and durability of new bricks Coletti, Chiara Maritan, Lara Cultrone, Giuseppe V. Dalconi, Maria Chiara Hein, Anno Molina, Eduardo Mazzoli, Claudio Bricks Waste recycling Petrography Pore system Durability Physical and mechanical properties This study was funded by Research Group RNM179 of the Junta de Andalucía, Research Project MAT2016-75889-R, and overseas mobility grant ‘Fondazione Ing. Aldo Gini’. Funding was also received from INPS - Gestione Ex Inpdap (Direzione Regionale Veneto) through the ‘Doctor J’ PhD grant for the period 2013-2015, and from the University of Padova (Research Project CPDA151883). This work examined the possibility of recycling trachyte waste as temper for preparing new types of bricks, thus reducing disposal costs and requirements for increasingly vulnerable raw materials, ultimately reducing production costs. The influence of the waste addition was studied by determining the petrographic and physical characteristics of fired bricks, in order to assess their aesthetic and mechanical features. Alkali feldspars in trachyte turned out act as fluxing agents, favoring partial melting of the matrix. Textural and mineralogical analyses revealed a considerable increase in the number of connections among minerals, extensive re-crystallization of the matrix, and an overall increase in compactness, not only with increasing firing temperatures but also increasing trachyte contents. The physical and mechanical properties of all samples were comparable with those of traditional bricks, showing that the addition of trachyte confers sufficient technical features already at 900 C, allowing further reduction of production costs by lowering firing temperatures. 2025-05-30T11:12:55Z 2025-05-30T11:12:55Z 2018-03-30 journal article C. Coletti et al. Construction and Building Materials, 166, 792-807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.01.158 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/104365 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.01.158 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier