New Technique and Manufactured Device for Determining the Efflorescence of Clay Brick Masonry

Bricks are one of the most important building materials used in the field of civil engineering. Efflorescence is one of the most important problems facing clay bricks because of the envi-ronmental impact. This problem affects the brick quality and is consequently not easy to han-dle. In Iraq, this phenomenon presents a real challenge for the industry because it is widespread in most brick production factories. In this research, we first used a new technique to evaluate efflorescence in a short time span, unlike the traditional method, which takes about 7 to 10 days to evaluate efflorescence levels. This method depends on the electrical conductivity of clay brick materials. Secondly, an electrical device was implemented for measuring efflorescence levels based on the proposed technique in this research. This technique provides sufficient data in a very short time (about 3 h) to assess efflorescence levels based on the electrical conduc-tivity measurements. This proposed technique gives the same results as the traditional testing method but would be preferred because it reduces the testing time to a very short period and gives more details about efflorescence levels in bricks.