Abstract:
The building wall is our third skin. Edifice the third skin out of earth has been practiced
since prehistoric era, because of the availability of soil as a raw material. Merely
soil have many weakness including its geo technical properties of shrink swell, low density
and high permeability. In order to convert geotechnical properties into engineering
material, there should be a stabilizer. This study was conducted to study alternative
stabilizer for earth based construction particular to mud concrete earth construction.
An inventory of potential alternative stabilizers were arose based on an immense
literature survey, inspired from nature and from ancestral folk knowledge. Several mix
designs were subjected to a strength development study. Overall engineering properties
and total life cycle study was conducted according to engineering standards. The
durability, cost, thermal performances, embodied energy and life-cycle cost were studied
and compared with most available wall construction units. Finally, the impertinent
technology was enhanced to use as residential scale technology for poor people in the
country. The application and the manufacturing process was advocated among low income
villagers to building their houses.
The study has found that natural polymers such as natural rubber latex, pines resin,
dawul kurudu, and sugarcane bagasse can enhance the mechanical properties of a mud
concrete block. Industrial waste such as fly ash, bottom ash, and rice husk ash can
work as an alternative stabilizer. A more advanced technology of geopolymerizing mud
concrete block was invented by this study. In the practical construction world, this
novel wall material should be testified in front exiting wall material palette. Found that
mud concrete block is a suitable solution to replace existing expensive wall construction
technology. Finally, the manufacturing process was optimized into the plenteous
production process to manufacture mud concrete block in mass scale. More than all,
this thesis has given birth to an affordable wall construction technology for poor people
in the country.
