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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1

GENERAL
The constant developmental activities in civil engineering and

growing industrial activities have created a continuous demand for building

materials which satisfy all the stringent requirements regarding the short-term
and long-term performance of the structure. As the structures of tomorrow
become taller and more complex, the materials of construction will be
required to meet more demanding standards of performance than those in
force today (Fuller 2006).
Indias present housing shortage is estimated to be as high as 31
million according to census and out of these shortages 24 million units are in
rural areas and 7 million units in urban areas. Such a large housing
construction activities require a huge amount of money. Out of this total cost
of housing construction, building materials contribute to about 70% of cost in
developing countries like India. The increase in the popularity of using
environmental friendly, low-cost and light weight construction materials in
building industry has brought about the need to investigate how this can be
achieved by benefiting the environment as well as maintaining the material
requirements affirmed in the standards (Turgut Paki and Algin Halil Murat
2007).

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In the construction industry, building technology is heading towards an
entirely new era because of the usage of industrial wastes in various forms of
building material production. For instance, the use of waste rubber, glass powder,
industrial waste fibres, wood sawdust wastes and limestone powder wastes in
building material production has received diligent attention over the past few years.
This is quite understandable because it is slowly but increasingly being recognized
that the economic progress in construction depends more on an intelligent use of
materials and constant improvement of available materials.

1.2

INNOVATION OF PAPERCRETE
Papercrete is a material originally developed 80 years ago but it is

only recently rediscovered. Papercrete is a fibrous cementitious compound

comprising waste paper and Portland cement. These two components are
blended with water to create a paper cement pulp, which can then be poured
into a mould, allowed to dry and be utilized as a durable building material. It
should be noted that papercrete is a relatively new concept with limited scope.
Papercrete has three derivatives, namely fibrous concrete, padobe
and fidobe. The fibrous concrete is a mixture of paper, Portland cement and
water. There are no harmful by-products or excessive energy use in the
production of papercrete. Padobe has no Portland cement. It is a mix of paper,
water and earth with clay. Here clay is the binding material. Instead of using
the cement, earth is used in this type of brick. This earth should have clay
content of more than 30%. With regular brick, if the clay content is too high
the brick may crack while drying, but adding paper fiber to the earth mix
strengthens the drying block. It gives flexibility which helps to prevent
cracking. Fidobe is like padobe, but it may contain other fibrous material.

1.3

BRIEF HISTORY OF BRICKS

All over the world, bricks are the most widely used construction

materials for the construction of buildings. The bricks are obtained by

moulding clay in rectangular blocks of uniform size and then by drying and
burning the blocks. As the bricks are of uniform size, they can be properly
arranged. The common brick is one of the oldest building materials and it is
extensively used at present as a leading material in construction. In India, the
process of brick making has not changed since many centuries except in some
minor refinements. There has been hardly any effort in our country to
improve the brick-making process for enhancing the quality of bricks. Also
the structures in view of their compressive strength, structural stability and
relative low cost have not undergone any drastic change. But it has two major
drawbacks, namely self weight and brittleness.
1.4

PAPER
Paper is a natural polymer which consists of wood cellulose, which

is the most abundant organic compound in the planet. Cellulose is made of

units of monomer glucose (polysaccharide). The links in the cellulose chain
are a type of sugar as -D-glucose. Despite containing several hydroxyl
groups, cellulose is water insoluble. The reason is the stiffness of the chains
and hydrogen bonding between two OH groups on adjacent chains. The
chains pack regularly in places to form hard, stable crystalline regions that
give the bundled chains even more stability and strength. This hydrogen
bonding is the basis of papercretes strength. By applying a force on the paper
the hydrogen bond between the water and the cellulose molecule is broken.
Coating cellulose fibers with Portland cement creates a cement matrix, which
encases the fibers for extra strength to the mix. Cellulose hydrogen bonds are
shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Cellulose hydrogen bonds in paper

The links in the cellulose chain are a type of sugar: -D-glucose.
The cellulose chain bristles with polar -OH groups. These groups form many
hydrogen bonds with OH groups on adjacent chains, bundling the chains
together. Viewed under a microscope, it is possible to see a network of
cellulose fibers and smaller offshoots from the fibers called fibrils.

Figure 1.2 Fibrils are offshoots of fibers

Figure 1.3 Fibrils network

Figure 1.2 and 1.3 show fibers and fibrils network to form a matrix,
which becomes coated with Portland cement. When these networks or
matrices of fibers and fibrils dry, they intertwine and cling together with the
power of the hydrogen bond.
1.5

FLYASH
Flyash is a by-product of the combustion coal in the thermal plants.

It is removed by the dust collection system as fine particle residue from the
combustion gases before they are discharged into atmosphere.

Depending upon the collection system, varying from mechanical to

electrical precipitators or bag houses and fabric filters, about 85% to 90% of
the ash from the flue gases is retrieved in the form of flyash. Flyash accounts
for 76% to 8 % of the total coal ash and the remainder is collected as bottom
ash or boiler slag. The bottom ash and boiler slag are much coarser and are
not pozzolanic in nature. It is thus important to recognize that all the ash is not
flyash and the flyash produced by different power plants is not equally
pozzolanic.
Testing shows that the bricks meet or exceed the performance
standards listed in ASTM C 216 for conventional clay brick. It is also within
the allowable shrinkage limits for concrete brick in ASTM C 55, and standard
specification for Concrete Building Brick. It is estimated that the production
method used in fly ash bricks will reduce the embodied energy of masonry
construction by upto 90% (Chusid et al 2009).
1.6

CURRENT RESEARCH TRENDS

In the last decade, a large demand has been placed on building

material industry especially owing to the increasing population which causes

a chronic shortage of building materials. As a result, civil engineers have been
challenged to convert the industrial wastes into useful building and
construction materials. Accumulation of unmanaged waste especially in
developing countries has resulted in an increased environmental concern.
Recycling of such wastes into building materials appears to be viable solution
not only to such pollution problems but also to the problem of economic
design of buildings.
The current pool of knowledge pertaining to papercrete was
obtained predominately through many anecdotal field experiments and

observations. Yet very little by way of peer reviewed research exists in regard
to this material.
1.7

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the present investigation are:
To utilize the waste materials like paper, flyash etc, in the
process of manufacturing new type of eco-friendly bricks,
namely papercrete bricks.
To manufacture and study the strength and durability of the
papercrete bricks in order to effectively use these papercrete
bricks commercially for construction purposes.
To extend the investigation further to study the structural
behavior of the papercrete brick masonry experimentally and
theoretically.

1.8

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

In order to accomplish the aforesaid objectives, the research work

has been divided into nine major parts. They are:

(i)

Material collection

(ii)

Study of properties of materials

(iii) Specimen making

(iv) Preliminary tests
(v)

Optimization of mix

(vi) Behavioural studies on the papercrete bricks and masonry

units

(vii) Comparison of results with conventional bricks

(viii) Comparison of results with software analysis
(ix) Viability and cost analysis

PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

MAKING THE SPECIMEN

PRELIMINARY TESTS

COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

PERCENTAGE OF WATER
ABSORPTION

BIO-DEGRADATION

MIX OPTIMIZATION

STUDIES ON STRENGTH OF
PAPERCRETE BRICKS

STUDIES ON BEHAVIOUR OF
PAPERCRETE MASONRY UNIT

COMPARISON WITH FEM

ANALYSIS

COMPARISON WITH
CONVENTIONAL BRICKS

VIABILITY AND COST

ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION /
SUGGESTION

Figure 1.4 Methodology Flow chart

The flowchart in Figure 1.4 represents the methodology of the
present work and describes each and every stage of work as well.

1.8.1

Collection of Materials
To attain these goals, materials were collected from various

sources. Material collection is the basic and important step in any project.
Yet, the material that is used in a project should not cause any damage to the
environment. In the study, paper is the main constituent material. Seshasayee
paper board (SPB) mill, Pallipalayam (3 km from the institution) and TNPL
paper mill, Karur (30 km from the Institution) are nearby. Both are ISO
certified paper mills.
Also a lot of small paper mills (Cardboard manufacturing factories)
are surrounded by our locality. Papers are collected by two forms. (i) slurry
form and (ii) dry form. Slurry form (Paper pulp) was bought from SPB and
TNPL. Dry form i.e. old newspapers especially The Hindu is collected from
college hostel and college Library. Of these two forms, slurry form is not
good enough in fibre content because the slurries are the final output effluent
after recycling process.
So the news papers were collected and converted to slurry form
(paper pulp) using small flour machine. Flyash was collected from Mettur
Thermal Plant (dry ash) and the properties were studied. Ricehusk-ash, and
micro silica were purchased from an authorized company dealer and those
properties were studied. 43 grade cement and sand were collected and the
properties were studied as per BIS standard. Also, the water proofing
materials were bought from various dealers and the properties were studied
and it was conformed with the respective companies.
1.8.2

Preparation of Specimen
Waste papers or old news papers were collected from in and around

the locality and shredded into little pieces and then immersed in water bucket.

After 15 days, the wet papers were taken out and poured into flavor machine.
The machine pulverized the paper and it was converted to paper slurry (paper
pulp). Normally the paper pulp would be in wet condition. Using pressed
filtering, the excess amount of water was expelled. Now, the paper pulp with
some residual water content was ready to mix with other ingredients. All the
ingredients (excluding paper pulp) were in dry state.
All the ingredients were poured into the mixer drum and mixed
uniformly electrically. Then the papercrete matrix was sent to collecting drum
through conveyor belt. Here the moulds received the matrix and pressing
unit compressed the fresh matrix with 10 kN/mm2 hydraulically. Then the
bricks were taken out from mould. The size of the papercrete bricks was
230mm X 110mm X 70mm. Within 15days, i.e. after hearing the metallic
sound when strikeout the brick surface, the specimen was ready for testing.
1.8.3

Optimization of Mix Through Preliminary Tests

As per Indian standards, BIS recommends (IS:1077-1992 and

IS:3495-1992) only four tests for clay bricks, i.e. determination of

(a) compressive strength, (b) water absorption, (c) efflorescence and
(d) warpage.
Of these tests, efflorescence and warpage are observation tests. In
this regard, compressive strength and percentage of water absorption are the
main criteria for influencing the optimization of papercrete mix.
In these stages, paper and cement are the main essential materials
for papercrete matrix. Additionally, flyash and/or ricehusk ash and/or silica
fume are added with and without sand. From more than 24 trial mixes,
successive mix was found out. In order to improve the resistant of water
absorption, different types of water proofing agents were added in desirable

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dosage to papercrete matrixes. Finally, depending upon the compressive

strength, percentage of water absorption and also bio-degradation test, the
papercrete mix was optimized.
1.8.4

Studies on Papercrete Bricks and Masonry Unit

The flyash based coated papercrete bricks were studied for

compressive strength, percentage of water absorption, acid resistance,

behaviour under elevated temperature, sorptivity and thermal conductivity.
Before the masonry construction, the loading frames were designed and the
set up was installed on rigid firmed floor in structural engineering laboratory.
In the first stage, loading frame was tested without infilled masonry and
recorded the behaviour of frame using Prosof software. Then, flyash based
papercrete brick masonry and conventional clay brick masonry were infilled
in the loading frame separately. The behaviour of infilled masonry walls were
studied.
1.8.5

Comparison of Results
The results from compressive strength, percentage of water

absorption, acid resistance and sorptivity of flyash based papercrete bricks

were compared with conventional clay bricks and modular flyash bricks. The
results from the behaviour of infilled flyash based papercrete brick masonry
wall were compared with conventional clay brick masonry wall. Also a model
infilled flyash based papercrete brick masonry wall is created using ANSYS
software and compared with experimental results.
1.8.6

Viability and Cost Analysis

The preliminary test results show some negative points. But by

taking the efforts from literature support and discussing with field and

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academic experts, the negative points were rectified by using internal and
external water proofing admixtures. So the coated papercrete bricks are the
viable and sustainable material in nature and environment.
The cost of the material plays an important role in the construction
industry. The cost analysis of papercrete bricks was studied at the end of the
project and it was compared with conventional clay and modular flyash
bricks. The cost of conventional clay bricks and modular flyash bricks were
calculated based on July 2011 rate at Namakkal District, TamilNadu, India.
1.9

ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis consists of nine chapters. The first chapter gives a brief

introduction to the investigations carried out and explains the research

significance of the proposed investigation. Chapter 1 presents the objectives
of the study and methodology to be followed for the research work. Chapter 2
reviews critically the previous studies in the fields of utilization of waste
materials and papercrete. Towards the end of this chapter, a summary of
earlier works and the scope of the present investigation are discussed in detail.
Chapter 3 describes the properties of papercrete ingredients.
Chapter 4 deals with the effect of mineral admixture in papercrete
bricks. In this chapter the effects of addition of flyash, micro silica, rice husk
ash, sand and cement on the various mechanical properties like compressive
strength, water absorption were studied. Concluding remarks of these studies
are presented at the end of the chapter. Based upon the chapter 4, some
negative observations have been faced. Rectifications of these problems are
given in Chapter 5 under the title of Papercrete mix optimization with flyash
and based on the trial mixes, the papercrete mix was optimized. In view of
that, bio-degradation test was conducted on flyash based papercrete building
bricks. The chapter deals with the studies on the micro characterization of

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papercrete bricks also and at the end of the chapter concluding remarks of the
studies are noted. Chapter 6 is devoted to study the strength and durability of
the coated flyash based papercrete bricks. Finally, it presents a comparison of
these results with conventional brick results.
In Chapter 7, the strength and behavior of flyash based papercrete
masonry are delineated. In this chapter, ANSYS modal has been proposed in
order to compare and verify the results. Cost analysis of flyash based
papercrete brick is done in Chapter 8 and also it is compared with the cost of
the conventional brick. Finally, the conclusions arrived at in each chapter are
summarized in Chapter 9. At the end of this chapter, the social outcome of the
project in the present research work is highlighted and the scope for future
work is also suggested.