The Effects Of Sawdust Addition On The Insulating Characteristics Of Clays From The Federal Capital Territory Of Abuja

Insulating properties of clays from The Federal Capital of Abuja like linear shrinkage, solid density, apparent porosity and thermal conductivity were characterized with a view of studying the effect of sawdust on them. The results showed that the linear shrinkage improved from an average of 8.57% for the three samples for 0% sawdust to an average of 8.32% with 40% addition of saw dust, bringing them closer to the lower range of the international standard of 7-10%. Solid density averaged 3.18g/cm3 with 0% saw dust and 2.91g/cm 3 with 40% saw dust, still bringing them closer to the international range of 2.3-3.5g/cm3. Apparent porosity averaged 13% with 0% saw dust and 17% with 40% addition of saw dust bringing them closer to the acceptable range of 20-80%. while thermal conductivity averaged 0.493W/mok with 0% saw dust and 0.134W/mok with 40% saw dust thereby improving their insulating properties. This 40% sawdust addition was discovered to be the maximum under which mechanical strength and other refractory properties of clay will remain stable.