Abstract
The main goal of this study is to assess the behaviour of soil–cement blocks with incorporation of organic wastes. The problem of waste accumulation exists worldwide and has become a concern in today’s society, leading to enormous environmental damage. One of the possibilities for reducing their environmental impact is the reuse of these wastes in new materials. However, incorporating waste changes the mechanical, physical and thermal properties of the new material. In order to evaluate the potential use of waste in blocks composition, laboratory tests were conducted and the results were analysed. This article presents the fire behaviour of ecological soil–cement blocks with waste incorporation. Therefore, an experimental programme was performed using samples of wall panel with soil–cement blocks. The wall specimen under fire conditions was also analysed by a non-linear transient finite element numerical model, in time and temperature domains, and the numerical and experimental temperature fields were compared.
Highlights
In developed countries, the practice of earth construction has fallen into disuse over the past century as a result of technological development and intensive use of new building materials such as concrete and steel
The results obtained for residual compression tests at six different temperature levels are shown in Figure 16, where SCS_W means compression soil–cement sample with waste incorporation
The thermocouples placed inside the block hole recorded temperatures between 270°C and 320°C; it was noticed that thermocouples positioned on the left side recorded lower temperatures than thermocouples positioned on the right side (Figure 18)
Summary
The practice of earth construction has fallen into disuse over the past century as a result of technological development and intensive use of new building materials such as concrete and steel. This constructive practice was wrongly associated with an image of poverty, typical of developing countries or extreme situations of housing and economic deprivation.[1]. Earth construction requires regular maintenance to ensure good durability
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