Unburned Clay Bound Building Materials for Masonry

Badea, Catalin; Dan, Sorin

Catalin Badea, Sorin Dan

Unburned Clay Bound Building Materials for Masonry

Abstract:
The paper presents the experimental research regarding the use in construction field of clay bound earth and wood chips combined with classical binders (cement and lime). New building materials were manufactured (for ground storey houses) by using clay bound and wood chips. The clay bound earth is present all around the Globe. Due to this reason there is one of the most common natural resources of the planet. The wood chips are a waste from wood furniture industry. The paper presents experimental research on mixtures made of clay bound, cement, lime, sawdust and water. Experimental tests were made for: apparent density, bending tensile strengths and compression strengths. The new manufactured building materials have physical and mechanical properties similar to lightweight mortars and bricks. Through clay bound and sawdust reusing a very good impact on environment and life health will be generated. The new building materials studied can be used at non-loadbearing and loadbearing masonry elements. The Batch 4 was the best one, having a bending tensile strength of 3.75 MPa and a compressive strength of 13.41 MPa at 365 days. It has the same mechanical characteristics like bricks made of from burned clay bound. The 25% water percentage is good enough for a satisfactory workability (the material flows to infill the mould); in case of the decrease of the water percentage (especially at 15%), the material has no flow and consequently, is necessary to apply a low pressure (by hand) to infill the mould. A 30% water percentage significantly improves the workability of mixtures.

Keywords:
clay bound; wood chips; building materials; wood industrial waste; sustainable materials; environmental protectection; live quality; energy efficiency; eco house; low embedded energy house

Issue: 2016 Volume 53, Issue 4

Pages: 681-684

Publication date: 2016/12/30