Clay-based composite stabilized with natural polymer and fibre

By Carmen Galán-Marín, Carlos Rivera-Gómez, J. Petric. 2010

302 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The research objective is the stabilization of soils with natural polymers and fibres to produce a composite, sustainable, non-toxic and locally sourced building material. Mechanical tests have been conducted with a clay soil supplied by a Scottish brick manufacture. Alginate (a natural polymer from the cell walls of brown algae) has been used as bonding in the composite. Sheep’s wool was used as reinforcement. Tests done showed that the addition of alginate separately increases compression strength from 2.23 to 3.77 MPa and the addition of wool fibre increases compression strength a 37%. The potential benefit of stabilization was found to depend on the combinations of both stabilizer and wool fibre. Adding alginate and reinforcing with wool fibre doubles the soil compression resistance. Better results were obtained with a lower quantity of wool.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Civil and Structural Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cba54769db6cbedd0779065aa3436efa83a4e541

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Building and Construction

In Civil and Structural Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Experimental characterization of Italian composite adobe bricks reinforced with straw fibers (2015, background): “Table 4 includes the main experimental data available in literature [8–10,21,33–45] on both strengths and elastic moduli of adobe bricks with and without fiber reinforcement.”
Effects of Xanthan gum biopolymer on soil strengthening (2015, background): “With the ultimate goal of reducing the environmental impact of cement, several studies have been performed for the purpose of soil improvement without cement [5,6].”
Plant aggregates and fibers in earth construction materials: A review (2016, background): “Crack propagation was limited by the presence of fibers, which led to a bridging effect with the clay and increased the friction at the interface between the fibers and the matrix [18,19].”
The use of sugarcane bagasse ash and lime to improve the durability and mechanical properties of compacted soil blocks (2012, background): “Many additives such as cement, lime, asphalt emulsions, bituminous materials, and natural and industrial byproducts have been tested to improve the mechanical properties and to enhance the durability of the compacted blocks [2–7].”