Abstract
Current practices supporting sustainable building design aim at reducing the expenditure of natural resources, such as raw materials, energy and water, in the production of construction supplies. In the current paper water is replaced by fennel centrifugate (FC) for the realization of cement mortar bricks. After having identified the most suitable cementitious pre-mixed over three potential candidates, the mechanical and physical characteristics of the FC bricks are compared to cement mortar bricks, prepared with regular water, by means of bending, compression at ordinary and high temperatures, imbibition and acoustic tests. From compared results, it is noticed that FC bricks have the same imbibition property, but tensile and compression (ordinary and high temperatures) resistances have about 20% less than the control specimen ones. The acoustic tests revealed a better response of FC bricks to the high frequencies greater than 1600 Hz. However, fennel fibres do not provide a manifest advantage, likely due to the small size of the centrifuged fragments that are not able to enhance the product tensile resistance.
Highlights
The construction industry has a significant adverse impact on the environment, with serious worldwide implications
In the current paper water is replaced by fennel centrifugate (FC) for the realization of cement mortar bricks
It is noticed that FC bricks have the same imbibition property, but tensile and compression resistances have about 20% less than the control specimen ones
Summary
The construction industry has a significant adverse impact on the environment, with serious worldwide implications. The innovative pipeline presented by the paper aims at reducing the use of water in cement production by substituting it with water contained in fennel by-products. In this context, fennel centrifugate (FC) was employed as additive to cement mortars for bricks manufacturing. In accordance with the Green Building Challenge process, the current work aims at: (1) reducing waste by employing a by-product of the agricultural industry, (2) employing less water in the process of cement-making by using fennel-centrifugate instead, (3) testing a new source of natural fibres (fennel), which are widely produced on the Italian territory and (4) fostering the use of local goods
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