Mechanical and Thermal Performance Characterisation of Compressed Earth Blocks

The present research is focused on an experimental investigation to evaluate the mechanical, durability, and thermal performance of compressed earth blocks (CEBs) produced in Portugal. CEBs were analysed in terms of electrical resistivity, ultrasonic pulse velocity, compressive strength, total water...

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Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 2978
Main Authors Teixeira, Elisabete R., Machado, Gilberto, P. Junior, Adilson de, Guarnier, Christiane, Fernandes, Jorge, Silva, Sandra M., Mateus, Ricardo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2020
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Summary:The present research is focused on an experimental investigation to evaluate the mechanical, durability, and thermal performance of compressed earth blocks (CEBs) produced in Portugal. CEBs were analysed in terms of electrical resistivity, ultrasonic pulse velocity, compressive strength, total water absorption, water absorption by capillarity, accelerated erosion test, and thermal transmittance evaluated in a guarded hotbox setup apparatus. Overall, the results showed that compressed earth blocks presented good mechanical and durability properties. Still, they had some issues in terms of porosity due to the particle size distribution of soil used for their production. The compressive strength value obtained was 9 MPa, which is considerably higher than the minimum requirements for compressed earth blocks. Moreover, they presented a heat transfer coefficient of 2.66 W/(m2·K). This heat transfer coefficient means that this type of masonry unit cannot be used in the building envelope without an additional thermal insulation layer but shows that they are suitable to be used in partition walls. Although CEBs have promising characteristics when compared to conventional bricks, results also showed that their proprieties could even be improved if optimisation of the soil mixture is implemented.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en13112978