The effect of Shea butter wastes on Physical Properties of Compressed Earth Bricks (CEB) and Cement Stabilized

Abstract

The search for new types of low-cost, low-energy building materials has sparked renewed interest in recent years. It is with this in mind that a new category of compressed earth brick reinforced in agro-industrial wastes and likely to be "eco-sustainable" materials has been developed. This work aims to study the impact of the shea butter wastes rate on the thermal conductivity and Young's modulus of cement stabilized CEB. To do this, three clay materials noted F, K and Y have been characterized and used to produce CEB. The physico chemical characterization of these raw materials reveals that they consist mainly of kaolinite, quartz, iron compounds and micaceous phases. The geotechnical tests have revealed that the clay materials F and K belong to class A2 soils while Y class A3. Subsequently, earth bricks with different compositions in mass percentage of clay and shea butter wastes, stabilized with 5% of cement were made by compaction at 40 MPa. The thermal conductivity of the materials made, measured by the Hot Disk method, revealed a decrease in conductivity of 25% for formulations with clay F, 16% for formulations with clay K and 22% for formulations with clay Y, when shea butter wastes contents go from 0 to 10%. Likewise, a decrease in the density of the CEB was observed. Young's modulus results determined through ultrasound showed good rigidity when clay soil is substituted with shea butter wastes of up to 6% for formulations with F and Y and up to 8% for formulations with K. The strengthening of CEB stabilized with a small amount of cement to shea butter wastes improves their thermal insulation properties.