Abstract: Before the end of the decade of the 1980’s red mud became a major concern in world environmental discussions. Red mud is a solid waste product of the Bayer process, the principal industrial means of refining bauxite in order to provide alumina as raw material for the electrolysis of aluminum by the Hall-Heroult Process. Red mud is composed of a mixture of solid and metallic oxide-bearing impurities, and presents one of the aluminum industry's most important disposal problems. The alumina industry is facing an important problem regarding the settling or separation of red mud during the production process as it not only affects the productivity of alumina but also its purity. Red mud cannot be disposed of easily and in most countries where red mud is produced, it is pumped into holding ponds. The utilization of red mud is of great significance from the point of view of resource conservation & sustainability of the aluminum industry. The direction of the researches undertaken to utilize red mud are based on their chemical, mineralogical and physical properties. There is an effective way of utilizing alumina red mud to make bricks. Only slight modification in the composition of red mud is required which can be done by incorporation of siliceous materials and admixtures. This paper aims at studying the behavior of interlocking blocks manufactured by using red mud for different variables. In this paper, the author is attempting to summarize the potential application of red mud in building materials industry and using the appropriate model of its utilization. The attention is to develop an extensive red mud utilization policy framework for building materials industry in the context of India as it has great potential of reducing the cost of construction material & developing a low cost housing technique considering the preservation of our environment.
 
Key words: Red mud, construction material, interlocking blocks, industrial waste.

Cite: Achal Garg, Harinder Yadav, "Study of Red Mud as an Alternative Building Material for Interlocking Block Manufacturing in Construction Industry," International Journal of Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 295-300, December 2015. doi: 10.17706/ijmse.2015.3.4.295-300