Mechanical And Thermophysical Properties Of Raw Earth Bricks Incorporating Date Palm Waste

Low cost building materials, thermal comfort, energy consumption reduction and lower carbon dioxide emissions are the main reasons for the renewed interest in the exploitation of local materials, in particular earth material and plant waste, in several countries throughout the world. In this context, the main purpose of the present work is to test a bio-sourced composite material, in the form of raw earth bricks, stabilized with lime and mixed with date palm waste (DPW) aggregates. This is done for the purpose of studying the effect of this waste at different contents (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% by weight) on the physical and thermal properties of the bricks obtained, and on their mechanical behavior. The results obtained revealed an improvement in the thermal insulation, with a thermal conductivity that went from 0.677 W/m.K, for test pieces with no date palm waste (DPW), to 0.342 W/m.K for those containing 10% of DPW. This improvement was accompanied by a reasonable decrease in the mechanical performance, while keeping the minimum performance threshold required by earthen construction standards. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.