scholarly journals Influence of Biopolymers on the Mechanical Behavior of Earth-Based Building Materials

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Julia Tourtelot ◽  
◽  
Ann Bourgès ◽  
Emmanuel Keita ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Wheat Starch ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Food Industries ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Paris Region ◽  
Raw Earth

Currently, the largest among the earth excavation sites in Europe are located in the Paris region. The soils excavated from these sites are often considered waste and are not valorized. With an increasing focus on sustainable development, the demand for low-carbon building materials is rising. Although construction using raw earth is a vernacular technique, the diversity in the behavior of the raw earth building materials warrants better control of their mechanical properties. The construction techniques differ depending on the location of the site, the composition of the earth, and the stabilizers used. Plant-based fibers and compounds extracted from plants are commonly used for reinforcing raw earth. Since such byproduct solutions have been developed worldwide, they differ significantly, and it becomes difficult to set a benchmark. The majority of the reported studies have directly used organic waste, rendering it difficult to characterize the material and extend the obtained results to other contexts. In order to reduce these variabilities, it becomes important to study the reinforcement of earth-based building materials with biopolymers that constitute the active molecules of the bio-based solutions. In the present study, different biopolymers derived from various vernacular techniques were utilized to increase the compressive strength of the construction soil collected from the Paris region. It was revealed that cellulose fibers and wheat starch increased the compressive strength of the earth from 3.5 MPa to 5.5 MPa and 4.5 MPa, respectively. In addition, the interactions of these biopolymers with clay were analyzed. The biopolymers identified as suitable for use in construction materials in the present study are widely available as wastes from paper, agricultural, or agro-food industries. These identified biopolymers would contribute to the development and standardization of construction using earth-based building materials.

Carbon footprint evaluation of local dwellings in Bangladesh towards low carbon society

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rezuana Islam ◽  
Sajal Chowdhury ◽  
Nusrat Jannat ◽  
Pranjib Paul
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Hybrid Methods ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Construction Techniques

PurposeLocal dwellings of Bangladesh have specific environmental characteristics. These dwellings extensively use locally available materials and construction techniques. Therefore, carbon footprint (CF), as a prominent environmental parameter, is greatly affected by construction materials and techniques. Nonetheless, scientific justification is limited to evaluate CF of these dwellings in Bangladesh according to different local construction materials. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate different rural dwellings’ CF for both construction and operational phases toward the development of low carbon society in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachFor evaluating CF, literature review and field studies were conducted to specify and categorize cases. An intensive field monitoring and occupant's survey were performed during summer. A widely recognized compliant database and assessment tool “Ecoinvent v3” was used based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14040 and 14044. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to evaluate constructional and operational stages of carbon emission using hybrid methods formed by process-based and economic input–output life cycle analysis (EIO-LCA) approaches.FindingsThe study indicates that different building materials significantly impact on dwelling's amount of carbon emission according to construction techniques. Brick dwelling's construction stage carbon emission was nearly 3.86 times higher than timber, whereas, 6.75 times higher than mud dwelling. In terms of operational stage, local brick dwelling emits higher carbon compared to others relating to occupants’ lifestyle and activities.Originality/valueThis study will contribute to helping professionals and policy-makers to interpret and evaluate architectural design and construction processes for improving low-carbon dwellings in Bangladesh.

scholarly journals Fire Resistance Behaviour of Geopolymer Concrete:An Overview

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Salmabanu Luhar ◽  
Demetris Nicolaides ◽  
Ismail Luhar
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Flexural Behavior ◽  
Thermal Shrinkage ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Loss Of Strength

Even though, an innovative inorganic family of geopolymer concretes are eye-catching potential building materials, it is quite essential to comprehend the fire and thermal resistance of these structural materials at a very high temperature and also when experiencing fire with a view to make certain not only the safety and security of lives and properties but also to establish them as more sustainable edifice materials for future. The experimental and field observations of degree of cracking, spalling and loss of strength within the geopolymer concretes subsequent to exposure at elevated temperature and incidences of occurrences of disastrous fires extend an indication of their resistance against such severely catastrophic conditions. The impact of heat and fire on mechanical attributes viz., mechanical-compressive strength, flexural behavior, elastic modulus; durability—thermal shrinkage; chemical stability; the impact of thermal creep on compressive strength; and microstructure properties—XRD, FTIR, NMR, SEM as well as physico-chemical modifications of geopolymer composites subsequent to their exposures at elevated temperatures is reviewed in depth. The present scientific state-of-the-art review manuscript aimed to assess the fire and thermal resistance of geopolymer concrete along with its thermo-chemistry at a towering temperature in order to introduce this novel, most modern, user and eco-benign construction materials as potentially promising, sustainable, durable, thermal and fire-resistant building materials promoting their optimal and apposite applications for construction and infrastructure industries.

The New Rural Residential Building Materials of Low Carbon Mode of Thinking

2012 ◽  
Vol 443-444 ◽  
pp. 110-114
Author(s):  
Yuan Luo
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Actual Situation ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
New Model ◽  
Construction Methods ◽  
Current Transition

In the current transition conditions, living in rural areas how to form a new model to address the issue of live and living is very necessary. Mountainous rural areas and more for less, construction methods and how to inject carbon idea behind such issues as the actual situation in rural areas of the construction line tools and real estate construction materials, forming a certain significance of the ideas and methods.

scholarly journals Strength, sustainability and affordability of bamboo and mud bricks as materials used in local construction

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leopold Mbereyaho ◽  
Jean de Dieu Mutabaruka ◽  
Abaho G. Gershome ◽  
Armel Ineza ◽  
Ezra Ngirabatware
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Conventional Concrete ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Mud Bricks ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Sisal Fibers

The construction industry is one of the rapidly growing and the cost analysis suggests that the materials cost is constantly increasing. The continuous extraction of aggregates intensively used in the field is negatively acting to the environment. Therefore research in construction materials should focus not only on discovering new alternative materials but also in appreciating the quality of those locally available for their better application. This research aimed at evaluating the performance of bamboo and mud bricks as two available local building materials, especially with regards not only to their strength but also to new performance concepts which are affordability, energy efficiency and environment friendly aspects. The study comprised mainly of laboratory tests of used materials and cost estimation analysis. Study results established that the considered bamboo and mud bricks, made in ordinary soils and reinforced by sisal fibers were reusable, environment friendly materials and energy efficient, with the bamboo showing the thermal conductivity equal to 0.1496 W/mK. Regarding the compressive strength, reinforced mud bricks with sisal fibers showed an increased value from 1.75 MPA to 4.29MPA, what was in line with related previous studies. The average compressive strength of the studied Arundinaria Alpine bamboo was established at 133,7MPA, while its tensile strength was 88.16MPA and these values were reasonable with comparison to other conventional materials. It is recommended that further research in checking the performance of other types of bamboo as well as about new construction technologies be undertaken in order to enhance the service life of both bamboo and mud bricks.Keywords: Affordability, Bamboo, Conventional concrete, Materials strength, Mud reinforced bricks, Sustainability

scholarly journals Biological susceptibility of earth plasters: The influence of relative humidity on fungal growth

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Marie Sokolová ◽  
Pavla Ryparová
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Fungal Growth ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Earthen Construction ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Microbiological Agents ◽  
Number Of Authors

All building materials can be affected by microbiological agents during their lifecycle. The presence of microorganisms changes the appearance of the surface, degrading it, and they can even cause health problems to the residents. The biological susceptibility is dependent on the content of nutrient based on organic compounds. Thus one of the most susceptible of those materials are earthen construction materials. The degree of fungal growth is influenced by the chemical composition and plant fibres additives as well as the external conditions such as temperature and relative humidity. The earth plastering mortar has started to gain more attention recently as it is considered to have a low environmental impact and to increase the indoor air quality. Mechanical and physical characteristics of earth materials were studied by a number of authors but the knowledge about the biological resistance of the material is scarce. This study intends to look into the issue of the biological colonisation of earth plasters depending on the relative humidity. The samples, made of four types of earth plasters with different plant fibres, were placed to an environment of the relative humidity ranging from 33% to 100%. During a period of 4 weeks the extent of fungal growth was observed.

Building a more Resilient and Low-Carbon Caribbean - Report 1: Climate Resiliency and Building Materials in the Caribbean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jed Bailey ◽  
Paola Carvajal ◽  
Javier García Fernández ◽  
Christiaan Gischler ◽  
Carlos Henriquez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
The Caribbean

The Caribbean islands are among the 25 most-vulnerable nations in terms of disasters per-capita or land area, and climate change is only expected to intensify these vulnerabilities. The loss caused by climate events drags the ability of the Caribbean countries to invest in infrastructure and social programs, contributing to slower productivity growth, poorer health outcomes, and lower standards of living. Within this context, building resiliency should become a priority for the Caribbean countries. The series “Building a more resilient and low-carbon Caribbean”, focuses on improving the resiliency, sustainability and decarbonization of the construction industry in the Caribbean. The results show that increasing building resiliency is economically viable for the high-risk islands of the Caribbean, generating long term savings and increasing the infrastructure preparedness to the impacts of CC. Report 1 - Climate Resiliency and Building Materials in the Caribbean, presents a quantification of the economic losses caused by climate impact events in the Caribbean Region and correlate these figures with the most common construction materials, typically used in each of the countries building typologies. The losses caused by hurricanes concentrate mostly in the residential infrastructure and are mainly caused by weaknesses in roofs and their connection to the walls. The analysis suggests that improving the resiliency of outer walls and roofs in the Caribbean could significantly reduce the regions vulnerability to hurricanes and other climate impacts.

Starch Reinforcement of Raw Earth Constructions

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Tourtelot ◽  
Chloé Fourdrin ◽  
Jean Baptiste d'Espinose de Lacaillerie ◽  
Ann Bourgès ◽  
Emmanuel Keita
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Strength ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Wheat Starch ◽  
Organic Additives ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
Compressive Test ◽  
Physicochemical Interactions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Earthen Buildings ◽  
Raw Earth

The restoration, the protection, or the creation of earthen buildings require improving the mechanical strength of the material. The first way to do that is to use inorganic additives, but these additives change the structural properties of earth and have a high carbon footprint. In contrast, the other way to consolidate is the use of organic additives such as vegetal derivatives that rearrange the minerals in the earth, with the lowest carbon footprint as they are from waste management. After preliminary tests with ten different organic additives from traditional recipes, we found that wheat starch improves the earth strength up to 50 %. In this study, we related the mechanical strengthening to the physicochemical interactions between clays and starch. We focus on three clays that represent the three main groups of clays: kaolinite, illite and montmorillonite. For this study, we mainly focused on compressive test and rheological tests. We showed that the improvement of the mechanical strength with starch is depending on clay nature and their chemistry. Then, we can recommend formulations based on the earth nature for new sustainable buildings. Furthermore, we can understand why it was an interesting way to use starch as a strengthening agent in traditional recipes and how it could be used to repair and protect buildings made of earthen material.

THE INFLUENCE OF INITIAL MATERIALS ON THE COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF GEOPOLYMER SOILS

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Chan Nguyen ◽  
Anh Tuan Nguyen ◽  
Namshik Ahn
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Sodium Silicate ◽  
Alkaline Solution ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Clay Content ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Production ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Curing Temperature ◽  
Low Carbon

In recent years, geopolymers have received significant attention because they show environmental benefits, such as a reduction in the consumption of natural resources and a decrease in the net production of CO2. In addition, as green material, soil has low carbon dioxide production emissions compared to other building materials. In this research, soil was combined with activator alkaline to produce hardening materials as geopolymer soils. An alkaline solution with sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate and fly ash was used. The influence of clay content on the geopolymer soils’ compressive strength was investigated. The best strengths were obtained from 5% to 12% clay content. SEM photos were also taken from specimens to investigate the structure of geopolymer soils. When combined with soil and fly ash in geopolymerization, fly ash reacted to the alkali solution quickly. The relationships between many variables such as clay content, fly ash, alkaline solution, curing time, and curing temperature were investigated by using a statistical analysis program with over 100 initial parameters. These results also indicate that the use of soils in geopolymer soil should have been limited. Additionally, increasing the sodium silicate in the alkaline liquid affected the geopolymerization reaction significantly. However, the suitable Si on the alkaline solution and soil should be limited.

scholarly journals Predicting Unconfined Compressive Strength Decrease of Carbonate Building Materials against Frost Attack Using Nondestructive Physical Tests

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzouk Mohamed Aly Abdelhamid ◽  
Dong Li ◽  
Gaofeng Ren
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Unconfined Compressive Strength ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Compressional Wave ◽  
Compressional Wave Velocity ◽  
Frost Weathering ◽  
Spatial Attenuation

Carbonate building materials and engineering constructions are exposed to severe seasonal environmental fluctuations and result in a full or partial disintegration, especially in cold regions, and employment of nondestructive methods for evaluating the durability of building materials subject to frost weathering is gaining great significance. This research aims to obtain reliable relationships between unconfined compressive strength decrease and nondestructive parameters variations of limestone types under frost conditions and provide useful information regarding their durability in order to ensure the long-term viability or sustainability of these materials used for constructions against frost conditions. In this study, five important types of Chinese limestone used as construction materials were subjected to 50 frost cycles. Unconfined compressive strength, compressional wave velocity and spatial attenuation, and porosity were obtained at the end of every 10 cycles. As a result of progression in frost cycles, the increase and decrease rates were determined at the end of every 10 cycles, and the relationships between them were obtained to predict the loss ratios of unconfined compressive strength (RDσc). Results indicated that at the end of 40th cycles, there was a high correlation between RDσc and spatial attenuation loss with an R2 of 0.8584. Furthermore, there was also a strong relationship between RDσc and compressional wave velocity decrease after the end of 20th and 50th cycles with an R2 of 0.9089 and 0.9025, respectively. Therefore, these relations are reliable to provide useful information for durability and viability of studied samples under frost conditions and support the use of the ultrasonic measurements. It can also be successfully used for pre-estimation of unconfined compressive strength loss of studied limestone types against frost weathering without any tests.

scholarly journals The use of screening of crushed granite stone for the production of building materials

2021 ◽  
Vol 340 ◽  
pp. 01004
Author(s):  
Fedor Gorbunov ◽  
Lilia Berdnikova ◽  
Victor Bulgakov ◽  
Alexandra Fadina ◽  
Andrey Lapin
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Processing Temperature ◽  
Crushed Granite ◽  
Liquid Products ◽  
Pore Liquid ◽  
Technogenic Raw Materials ◽  
Softening Coefficient

The possibility of using technogenic raw materials – the screening of crushed stone with the addition of cullet based on a silicate binder for the production of construction materials for structural purposes is studied. By varying the processing temperature, it was possible to increase the softening coefficient of the products and to achieve the pH neutrality of their pore liquid. Products processed at a temperature of 500700 °C have the following performance characteristics: the compressive strength 16.6-31.4 MPa, the bendingstrength 3.4-5.9 MPa.

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