Abstract
Accessibility to energy-efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly materials are among the critical challenges that the building industry faces. In addition to its high cost, concrete and cement blocks or structures production is one of the factors that cause climate change. Therefore, the building industry has to develop innovative materials that contribute to the reduction of the challenges above. Due to its availability worldwide and its environmentally friendly characteristics, earth materials appear suitable against climate change in the building industry. However, blocks produced from earth materials have low compressive and tensile strengths and low durability. Recently, many researchers focused on stabilising soil with cement, lime, fibres, Etc. Cement/lime stabilisation is neither cost-effective nor energy-efficient, while natural fibres reinforcement faces durability challenges. In this study, a laterite soil was reinforced with polypropylene fibre, a type of waste plastic. The use of these plastic wastes contributes to reducing plastic worldwide and producing low-cost and environmentally friendly building materials. The main objective of this research work is to study the performance of polypropylene reinforced laterite bricks. A hair-like polypropylene fibre was mixed with air-dried laterite soil at 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.4% fibre content by weight of dry soil. The blocks and bricks made were air-dried for 14 days and tested according to EN 772-1:2011 (E). The findings on the unconfined compressive strength test, indirect splitting tensile test, compression test and initial rate of water absorption test are presented in this paper. The results indicate that the compressive strength of reinforced bricks increased by 84%, and the water absorption rate was reduced by 50% at 0.23% fibre content by weight of dry soil. These results show that polypropylene fibre can be an alternative reinforcement material to produce more durable earth blocks and bricks with improved compressive strength. It is recommended that one should mix dry laterite soil with fibre. Then add the optimum water content determined from the compaction test and mix until the mixture is homogenous before making blocks/bricks. Blocks/bricks made should be air-dried, avoiding exposition to sunlight.
Highlights
Laterite soil is among the most used earth materials in the building industry
Even though the cement/lime stabilisation reduces the emission of CO2 compared to concrete and fired clay blocks, it remains expensive, requires much energy and is not environmentally friendly compared to fibre reinforcement
Polypropylene fibre and potable water are the materials that were used in this study
Summary
Laterite soil is among the most used earth materials in the building industry. Houses built with laterite soil bricks have good thermal isolation and are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than concrete/cement [1]. Kumar et al [12]studied the performance of polypropylene fibre reinforced a mixture of soft clay and sand with fibre content ranging from 0.5% to 2% They reported increased compression strength of fibre reinforced soil with increasing fibre content and length. Abdullah et al [13] reported that polypropylene fibre reinforcement increases the unconfined compressive strength of weak soil, and the optimum fibre content was 0.15% by weight of dry soil. Selsiadevi & Ramani Sujatha [16] reported increased compressive strength of polypropylene fibre reinforced soil bricks with increasing fibre content (ranging from 0 to 1% fibre content by weight of dry soil), with a fibre aspect ratio of 80. The application of polypropylene fibre reinforcement on compressed earth bricks still needs to be investigated, the durability of polypropylene fibre reinforced compressed earth blocks and bricks
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