Assessment of Rocks from Part of Sw Nigeria for Composite Interlocks Production: Implication from Engineering and Market Analyses

This work assessed the suitability of five selected rocks from part of southwestern Nigeria for production of composite interlocking bricks. To achieve this, field mapping, composite interlocks production, petrographic study, water absorption capacity (WAC), Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) analyses with market survey in part of Lagos, Kwara and Kogi States were carried out. The rock samples were dissected into 20cm by 10cm by 2cm and given a rough surface polishing while the produced composite interlocks were allowed to set for a week and cured for two weeks. The result of the UCS shows that migmatite has the required 40.8Mpa while others rocks have less than 40Mpa. The WAC of the rocks ranges from 4.6 to 10.2. Responses from the market survey were subjected to statistical analysis. The result also shows that most of the respondents in the states found the finished products appealing, of good value for money and very unique. Varying percentages of the respondents want the composite interlocks at varying percentage of price increase over the cement interlocks. Furthermore, the respondents prefer the composite interlocks to be of monotonous rock cap while some of them want it for uniqueness. The conclusion drawn at the end of this work is that migmatite is more suited for the construction of composite interlocking brick. In addition, the composite interlocks production and sales has a good prospect as a business.