Technical Seminar Report on

PAPERCRETE

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of

Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering,
To Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University, Hyderabad.

Submitted by
G. Nikhil (CE 14R11A0157)

Under the Guidance of

Mr.P.Srikanth Reddy
Assistant Professor

2017-18
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
GEETHANJALI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
HYDERABAD
 1. INTRODUCTION

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 structure of tomorrow becomes taller and more complex, the materials of
construction will be required to meet more demanding standards of performance than
those in force today.

India’s present housing shortage is estimated to be as high as 31million 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 beachieved by
benefiting the environment as well as maintaining the material requirements affirmed in
the standards (Turgut Paki and Algin Halil Murat2007).

In the construction industry, building technology is heading towards an entirely

new area because of the usage of industrial wastes in various forms of  
building material production. For instance, the use of waste rubber, glass powder, indus-
trial 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.

Papercrete is a material originally developed 80 years ago but it is only

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.
 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Umarfarook H. Momin, Firoj Y. Sayyad (2017) studied on ‘Highly compressed
flyash based papercrete brick’. Their relevance of work is to utilize the waste materials
like paper, fly ash 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 behaviour
of the papercrete brick masonry experimentally and theoretically.

2. Jihal N T A, Aswin Antony, Aswin Asok and Anish Paul.P (2016) studied on
‘Papercrete: A Study of Paper Effluent Treatment Sludge as Partial Replacement for
Cement’. In this papers the authors discussed about the enormous quantity of waste paper
sludge is generation all around the world, saying that in India, 0.7% of total urban waste
generated comprises of paper sludge. The authors explain about the Feasibility of Sludge,
component material used in papercrete, they conducted compression and tension tests on
both cylindrical and cubical bricks, they compare the results of nominal bricks and
papercrete bricks.

3. Shermale YD, Varma MB (2015) investigated on ‘Papercrete: An Efficient Use of

Waste Paper’. Their papers says all about that papercrete is the most efficient way of
using paper waste, the authors studied on the raw materials used in papercrete,
manufacturing process of papercrete and they have conducted compression test, tensile
test , weight density test and also thermal Conductivity and Insulation.

4. Subramani.T, Angappan.V (2015) investigated on ‘Experimental Investigation of

Papercrete Concrete’, this authors studied on papercrete from the stage of their
innovation. The authors discussed about manufacturing of bricks by using fly ash, paper
waste. This paper contains very brief explanation about the materials used in papercrete
and their proportion comparing to nominal brick, and also features and benefits of
papercrete bricks. The authors also discussed about the properties of each of the material
used and clearly explained manufacturing procedure of these bricks.
 3. LITERATURE REVIEW CONCLUSION
1. They conclude that the fly ash based papercrete building bricks can be used for the
construction of external walls, partition walls, infilled walls, compound wall,
basement, etc. in non-earthquake prone area. And in the manufacture of conventional
clay bricks, a large amount of fuel is needed in order to burn the bricks. This causes
social deforestation and the non-cultivation of land. It may be avoided or minimized
by adopting papercrete bricks.
2. The authors concluded that the effluent treatment sludge as used as a replacement for
cement tend to generate better strength on partial replacement. The strength value of
the concrete mix was increased in a small scale but was not as our expectations of
HSC, they obtained the highest strength value at 7% replacement of the cement with
the ETS in concrete, Thus they are left with a conclusion that cement can only be
partially replaced with ETS.
3. The authors conclude that papercrete is far lighter a material than concrete or wood
and has good water absorption and insulation capacity, less shrinkage and is
environment friendly, has high strength to weight ratio. Future research on improving
its tensile strength can open up the possibilities of papercrete using it as a construction
worldwide.
4. The refered journal of this author explains under different tests that papercrete bricks
are suitable for non-load bearing walls only. The weight of the brick is 1/3rd to 2/5th
lesser than conventional clay brick.

The referred journals explained about the similar points i.e. materials used in
papercrete bricks and their proportions, most of them conduct compression, tension tests
and have approximately similar values. By the experimentations of the authors we can say
that papercrete bricks have much better strength values than normal bricks.
 4. METHODOLOGY

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

Manufacturing of Bricks:

There was no clear past details about the project. And there is no hard procedure for
casting the bricks. So the procedure that is given below was followed by our own. And
the equipments which were used in this project are for our convenience only.

Mould Preparation:

After collecting all the materials, a mould was prepared. This mould was non-water
absorbing in the size of 230mm length, 110mm wide and 80mm deep. The shorter sides
of the mould are slightly projecting to serve as handle. And joints were made without any
hole or gap to avoid leakage.

Pulp Generation:

The papers, which were collected, cannot be used directly. It should be made into paper
pulp before mixing with other ingredients. The following are the steps involved in the
generation of pulp.

 First the pins, threads and other materials in the papers were removed.
 Then the papers were teared into small pieces of papers.
 Then, a 200 liter water tank was taken. And 2/3 rd of it was filled with water.
 Then the small pieces of paper were immersed in the water tank. The paper pieces
were immersed individually not in a bulky manner in order to make the pieces
completely wet. Before immersing it into the water, the papers were weighed. The
figure shows the papers were being immersed in the water tank.

The papers were kept in the tank for 2 to 3 days otherwise until the papers degrade
into a paste like form. Then the paper was taken out from water and taken to the mixer
machine to make it as a paper pulp. The pulp generating process was tedious and time
consumption. For lab purpose only these procedures were followed. While going for mass
production, the Tow mixers were recommended to reduce the cost. The Tow mixers have
sharp blades and it can operate mechanically or electrically.
Mixing:

After all the ingredients were ready, the mixing was done. In this project, mixing was
done manually. The mixing process of fibrous concrete bricks and padobe bricks are
different, and that processes are given below. The exact mix proportion was not known.
So, trial proportions were used in this project.

Trail mix
S.n Identification Ingredients (%) Dr
o mark Fixit
302
Super
latex
Cement Paper Quary % of ggbs Dr fixit
dust with cement 101

1. P1 1 2 4 20% 20% 50ml

2. P2 1 2 4 30% 20% 50ml
3. P3 1 2 4 50% 20% 50ml
Table 1: Papercrete Mix Ratio.

Casting of Bricks:

After mixing, it should be placed in the mould within 30 minutes. So, two moulds were
used at the time to make the process very fast. The bricks were moulded manually by
hand and on the table. The following are the steps involved in molding,

 The mould was over a table

 The lump of mix was taken and it was placed in the mould.
 The extra or surplus mix was removed either by wooden strike or the metal strike or
frame with wire.
 The casted papercrete bricks dried for 14 days.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Cube Test Results:

Samples with 3%, 5%, 7% and 10% replacement of cement with effluent sludge were
casted. The cubes were casted as per the procedure specified in IS 516:1959 and IS
456:2000. The strength of 3 samples was tested at 7 and 28 days using compression
testing machine. The compressive strength values were compared with that of
conventional concrete mix of M25.
 Concrete Water/cement Slump (mm) 7-day strength 28-day
mixture ratio strength
ESC3 .45 65 17.11 30.55
ESC3 .45 74 18 31.77
ESC3 .45 82 20.44 33.67
ESC3 .45 69 18.66 32.33
Nominal .45 60 16.44 30
Table 2.Observed results for the cube casted for testing compressive strength

5. SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK

There is a lot of scope for further research and meaningful work in this endeavour. Some
of these include the study of:
1. The effect of supplementary cementitious materials like metakoline, blast furnace
slag, ground granulated blast furnace slag, etc., on the strength and durability of
light weight papercrete can be rewarding.
2. The strength and durability of other papercrete building elements like wall panels,
floor slabs, etc., are to be studied.
3. The structural behaviour of reinforced papercrete structural members like beams,
slabs, etc., needs to be investigated in depth.
4. The performance of infilled frame with papercrete bricks under earthquake is to be
studied further with respect to ductility and other performances with more number
of specimens and to be validated analytically also.
 References

1. Umarfarook H. Momin, Firoj Y. Sayyad (2017), ‘Highly compressed fly ash

based papercrete brick’ International Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET), Volume 4, Issue, 12, PP 1744-1750

2. Jihal N T A, Aswin Antony, Aswin Asok and Anish Paul P (2016), ‘Papercrete: A
Study of Paper Effluent Treatment Sludge as Partial Replacement for Cement’
IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering (IJSTE),
Volume 2 Issue 11, PP 869-873

3. Shermale YD, Varma MB (2016), ‘Papercrete: An Efficient Use of Waste Paper’

Recent Trends in Civil Engineering & Technology, Volume 5, Issue 3, PP 863-
873.

4. Subramanian. T, Angappan. V (2015), ‘Experimental Investigation of PaperCrete

Concrete’ International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering &
Management (IJAIEM) Volume 4, Issue 5, PP 134-143