The selection of optimum water-cement ratio for production of low thermal conductivity cement sand brick with Oil Palm Mesocarp Fibre as admixture

Abstract

The development of housing construction project in Malaysia has rapidly increasing. However, the development of the projects only focusing on the exterior look without giving consideration on the thermal properties of materials used for building envelopes which may influence to external gain and thermal comfort for the occupants inside. As way to encounter the problem, one of the methods is by passive design which through utilized a low thermal conductivity of brick wall in creating good thermal insulation of the building envelops. This study investigated the characteristics of the cement sand brick (CSB) with incorporated of Oil Palm Mesocarp Fibre (OPMF) as admixture by using different water-cement ratio ranging from 0.45 to 0.65. All bricks were tested for compressive strength, water absorption and thermal conductivity. The result reveals that the higher water-cement ratio increased the compressive strength and water absorption, while decreased in thermal conductivity of bricks. It was found that, by incorporating of 0.65 water-cement ratio enhances the production of low thermal conductivity brick with value of 0.891 W/mºC, compressive strength of 12.4 MPa and water absorption of 1.99% that meets the standard requirement. Foremost, the incorporation of OPMF with water-cement ratio of 0.65 provides alternative solution for energy efficiency and improve the comfort in buildings by improving CSB insulation properties.