Abstract
It has been observed that clay soil cannot be used for building design, unless it is modified by firing or with cement. Either method of stabilization can adversely affect the environment and public health just like indiscriminate dumping or open burning adopted in developing countries as the prevalent disposal technique for waste papers. This paper sought to examine the feasibility of using assorted waste papers to derive an alternative stabilizer to Portland Limestone Cement for modification of clay soil into composite materials suitable for building design. Specifically, clay-based composites were fabricated at 0 %, 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, and 20% replacement levels by weight with cement, and then hydrothermally-calcined waste paper ash nanomaterial (HCWPAN). Water absorption, sorptivity, bulk density, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, flaking concentration, flexural strength, and compressive strength were investigated for each of the fabricated samples. Irrespective of the stabilizing agent utilized, 10% loading level was found to be the optimum for possession of maximum mechanical strength by the samples. Only samples with the HCWPAN content were found to be capable of reducing building dead loads and improving thermal insulation efficiency over un-stabilized clay material, if applied as walling elements in buildings. Generally, it was revealed that the cement and HCWPAN have comparable influences on the properties of clay soil, thus indicating that HCWPAN could be utilized as an alternative stabilizer to cement. In addition, the preparation of HCWPAN was found to be more energy-saving than that of the cement.
Highlights
In recent decades, the impacts of technology on society have been pronounced, especially, in terms of changes in relation to survival needs such as foods and shelter as well as aspirations among which is knowledge
There is a slight difference in terms of static angles of repose of hydrothermally-calcined waste paper ash nanomaterial (HCWPAN) and cement, both of which are greater than the value obtained for the clay soil by about 40.8 % and 35.4 % respectively
It could be posited that thermal conductivity is a function of bulk density which is a function of porosity and as such, samples with HCWPAN content are more capable of ensuring a better thermal insulation performance than those made with cement at a similar content level
Summary
The impacts of technology on society have been pronounced, especially, in terms of changes in relation to survival needs such as foods and shelter as well as aspirations among which is knowledge. Some other studies have revealed that clay can be chemically modified using ashes derived from solid plant-based agro-wastes like sugarcane bagasse [11, 12], rice husk [13,14,15], corn cob [16], groundnut shell [17], palm oil fuel and palm kernel shell [18] In all these reported cases, the stabilizing agents exhibit good properties compared to cement in terms of improvement in the properties of the resulting clay-based composites. A comparison will be made between the use of HCWPAN and cement in terms of thermophysical and strength properties of the resulting clay-based composites and the energy involvement in the production processes
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