Abstract
Natural building materials are diminishing day by day. Hence economical alternatives of natural building materials are necessary for sustainable development. Hollow concrete block was developed to reduce the use of natural building materials. Agricultural waste products like coconut shells from coconut industry have disposal problems causing environmental concerns. Various studies were done in the past, replacing a portion of the natural aggregates with broken coconut shells for manufacturing the hollow concrete blocks. In this study, we have developed a new method of forming the holes of hollow concrete blocks by placing stacks of half portion of coconut shells at the bottom with convex surface upwards to reinforce the holes by arch action. The results show that the coconut shell reinforced hollow concrete blocks have better strength as compared to open-graded hollow concrete blocks available in the market.
Highlights
Bricks and stones are the conventional building blocks for the load-bearing structures
We have developed a new method of forming the holes of hollow concrete blocks by placing stacks of half portion of coconut shells at the bottom with convex surface upwards with the hypothesis, it would increase its strength
This study tries to compare the strength of the hollow concrete blocks reinforced with coconut shells as compared to the commercially available hollow concrete blocks
Summary
Bricks and stones are the conventional building blocks for the load-bearing structures. These conventional building materials and its raw materials are depleting quickly. For sustainable development, alternative cost effective building blocks were developed. Palmer developed the first hollow concrete block in 1890 and patented the design in 1900. Hollow concrete blocks may have one or more hollow cavities. Palmer’s blocks were of size 8 inch (20.3cm) x 10 inch (25.4 cm) x 30 inch (76.2 cm), and they were so heavy to lift. By 1905, about 1,500 companies were manufacturing concrete blocks in United States [1]. Hollow building blocks, are famous in the construction industry because of its economy
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