Assessment of Some Clay South West and Aluminmium Dross as Roofing Tile Materials

Clay has been widely used as a raw material in construction and in the building sector from the ancient period till date. It is a sustainable material and the technology of processing it can be found anywhere in the world. As a result of its sustainability, it can be used in many industries. One of the products derived from clay is roofing tiles. Some of the properties to be considered are thermal and durability of the materials, are necessarily to be taken into consideration, especially if the building needs to be situated in tropical region. Clay seems to be a good choice. This paper will therefore, assess the possibility of using clay from south west and aluminum dross as composite roofing tiles. Clay samples were collected from five (5) deposits in Igboora (Oyo), Ilaro, Itori, Ajegunle in (Ogun) and Ikorodu in (Lagos) states in south west of Nigeria. The clay samples were crushed, pulverized and sieved. Their chemical compositions analysis was carried out using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS); molds 135mm by 120mm by 15mm were made for the clay samples. Composites were made in the following proportions by a mix of clay samples with aluminum dross in a percentage ratio of 50:50 and another mixture of clay samples with aluminum dross and bentonite as a binder at a percentage ratio of 45:45:10. The physical properties such as water absorption and cold crushing strength were carried out. Also thermal conductivity was carried out on the sample. The result of chemical analysis showed that Igboora, Silica (47.9%) an alumina (36.7%), the rest were the traces or the other element. Ilaro samples were silica (43.5%) and alumina (34.2%) Itori samples, silica (49.8%) and alumina (30.7%). Ajegunle sample, silica (46%) and alumina (38.2%) and Ikorodu sample, silica (54.5%) and alumina (24.6%). These results were compared to the Grim-Shaw specifications which specified (25.45%) alumina and 40.6% silica compositions in requirements for clay soils ascertained that the samples were all clay soils, though the Ikorodu samples was lacking a little in its alumina content. The result of water absorption test of Igboora samples and its composite agree with the Indians roofing tiles' standard (IS 654:1992) while the other samples failed. The result for Ilaro composite 50:50 had the lowest thermal conductivity of 0.086w/m.kg for the crushing strength test, the Itori and Ilaro composite with bentonite acting as binder produced results of 1.07KN and 1.01KN which agrees with t