Compressive and Flexural Strengths of Cement Stabilized Earth Bricks Reinforced with Treated and Untreated Pineapple Leaves Fibres

Abstract

This study compares the effect of treated pineapple leaves fibres (T-PALF) with sodium hydroxide solution and untreated fibres (N-PALF) on the compressive and flexural strength of earth bricks stabilized with 3% and 5% cement. The fibre content ranged from 0% to 5% in steps of 1% by weight. The compressive strength tests were made at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of curing; the flexural strength test were conducted at 28th day only. The results show that the T-PALF had a higher compressive strength when comparing to the N-PALF. The highest compressive strength of the bricks was obtained at 28 days of curing. The compressive strength at 28 days of stabilized brick at 3% and 5% of cement reinforced with T-PALF were 4.01 and 4.81 MPa, respectively, while the one reinforced with N-PALF was 3.19 and 4.63 MPa, respectively. The results further show that the highest flexural strength of both stabilized bricks at 3% and 5% of cement reinforced with T-PALF and N-PALF was obtained with the bricks stabilized with 5% of cement reinforced with T-PALF. This results show that bricks stabilized with 5% cement and reinforced with 3% of treated fibres content are good for construction of load bearing walls. It was observed; a significant improvement of the reinforced blocks under flexure than under compression.

The elementary characterization of anthill clay for composite materials

“…According to the obtained results for the mechanical characterization of bricks, the average water absorption was detected as ~25% with respect to the weight. The water absorption is an indicator about the porosity, permeability and the mechanical strengths of the structure (Vodounon et al, 2019).…”

Performance of Polypropylene Fibre Reinforced Laterite Masonry Bricks

“…According to BS3921:1985, the minimum required compressive strength for load-bearing earth bricks is 5MPa. The Australian Standard requires a minimum compressive strength of 1.15 N/mm2, and the ASTM International E2392/E2392M-10e1 (2010) indicates a value of 2.068 N/mm2 for non-load bearing blocks [5]. With regard to BS3921:1985, the polypropylene fibre reinforced bricks made in this study can be used as load-bearing bricks at the optimum fibre content.…”

“…Axial compression load was applied to a cylindrical soil specimen at a constant deformation rate (the strain-controlled procedure). The ASTM controlled strain procedure is similar, and that standard also includes a procedure using controlled stress, in which the axial force is increased incrementally at regular intervals of time [5]- [7]. After the preparation, the specimen was placed in the unconfined compression test apparatus or autographic apparatus.…”

Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Mechanical Properties of Natural Fibre-Reinforced Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs)

“…This threshold is obviously not unique but depends on numerous factors such as the aspect ratio (the ratio between length and diameter), the density of the fibre, its physical composition and surface roughness. Chemical treatments such as the alkaline treatment proposed by Vodounon et al [19] also improve the surface of the fibres within certain duration limits. What emerges is an enormous variability of the Fibers 2021, 9, 78 2 of 21 variables involved.…”

“…One can note how the available scientific literature mainly focuses on experimental analyses to assess the macroscopic mechanical performance of various fibre-reinforced CEBs [18,19,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Authors usually investigate the flexural and tensile strengths by threepoint bending and tensile splitting tests, respectively.…”