IMPACTS OF VIETNAM REGION CLIMATE TO SOME PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE BRICKS INDIFFERENT MAINTENANCE REGIMES

Abstract

Vietnam’s Government has been driving the development of unburned building materials with an
output of about 12 billion bricks/ year in 2020 in which concrete bricks are accounted for 70%. Curing is
considered an important step to ensure stable product quality, reduce shrinkage, and reduce cracking when using
concrete bricks in construction. This paper presents the results of research on climate impacts of the North Central
and South of Vietnam to some properties of concrete bricks such as loss of mass, compressive strength, and
shrinkage in different maintenance regimes. The results showed that loss of mass due to evaporated water about
3-4.2% and shrinkage 0.35÷0.6 mm/m during the first 14 days of curing. The test results strongly recommend that
concrete bricks should be properly cured and the age and degree of shrinkage of concrete brick need to be
concerned when putting into construction. That is very necessary during winter in the North and Central regions,
and in the dry season in the South.