Effect of Banana Fibers on the Compressive and Flexural Strength of Compressed Earth Blocks

Abstract

Sustainable development of the built environment in developing countries is a major challenge in the 21st century. The use of local materials in construction of buildings is one of the potential ways to support sustainable development in both urban and rural areas. Building with Compressed Earthen Blocks (CEBs) is becoming more popular due to their low cost and relative abundance of materials. The proposed Green-Compressed Earth Block (GCEB) consists of ordinary CEB ingredients plus Banana fibers, which will be the focus of this study. Banana fibers are widely available worldwide as agricultural waste from Banana cultivation. Banana fibers are environmentally friendly and present important attributes, such as low density, light weight, low cost, high tensile strength, as well as being water and fire resistant. This kind of waste has a greater chance of being utilized for different application in construction and building materials. This focused on the use of banana fiber and its effect on the compressive and flexural strength in CEB. The deflection at the mid-span of the blocks studied was calculated using the Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT). The results of this study will highlight general trends in the strength properties of different soil mixes for CEBs. These efforts are necessary to ensure that GCEB technology becomes more widely accepted in the world of building materials and is considered a reliable option for providing low-cost housing.

The effects of alkali treatment on the mechanical and chemical properties of pineapple leaf fibres (PALF) and adhesion to epoxy resin

“…Alkali treatment removed natural and artificial impurities, which resulted in increase in surface roughness, hence leading to better interlocking adhesion and greater amount of exposed cellulose on the fibre surface. Similar finding was obtained by previous researcher [14]. Rougher surface enabled better fibre wetting through increased number of possible reaction sites.…”

Effect of Plant Aggregates on Mechanical Properties of Earth Bricks

“…The maximum flexural strengths of the different mixtures are represented in 513 It can be seen that the flexural strength is higher for the specimens with short 518 straw than for those with long straw. This result is contrary to the findings of some 519 other authors (Danso et al, 2015b;Mostafa and Uddin, 2015), who stated that an 520 increase of the fibre length increased the embedded length and thus the 521 adhesion area, leading to an improvement in flexural strength. This result could 522 be explained by the fact that, for the same straw content, there are more particles 523 in a mix with short straw than with long straw, engendering a better distribution of 524 the particles in the matrix.…”

Influence of Empty Fruit Bunch Stalk and Spikelet Fibres on the Mechanical Properties of Cement-stabilised Soil

“…In the present investigation, the maximum value of shear strength has been recorded for the spikelet composite with 2.5% of fibres. Fibres are known to oppose crack formation in step with increasing stress and also bridge micro cracks from expanding [18].…”