Abstract: The red mud from Shandong Aluminums Company were used to prepare water permeable brick, and then the main factors of affecting the performance of the bricks were investigated. The experiment results showed that the suitable formula for aggregate of the water permeable bricks are red mud of 55%, fly ash 35%, bentonite 10% at an appropriate sintering temperature of 1 150 ℃. Using this aggregate to make the bricks, the appropriate conditions consist of the aggregate of 82% in solid material of bricks, bentonite of 8%, glass powder of 10%, water glass accounting for 8% of solid material at brick molding pressure of 40 MPa, sintering temperature 1 080 ℃, and sintering time 60 min. The compressive strength of red mud water-permeable brick obtained is 35.32 MPa with permeability coefficient of 0.028 cm/s, wear length of 27.35 mm.

Key words: Red mud, Water permeable brick, Permeability coefficient, Compression strength, Abrasion resistance