LITERATURE REVIEW - OF RESERCH PAPER 2

TITLE: DEVELOPMENT OF WOOD-CRETE BUILDING MATERIAL

AUTHORS: AIGOBIAM, EGOZIEGBE PATRICK

PUBLISHER: BRUNEL UNIVERSITY

KEYWORDS: AFFORDABLE HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION WASTEAND LOCAL

BUILDING MATERIALCOMPRESSIVE STRENGTH,SAWDUST
AND WASTE PAPER,THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS:

Main concerns in the building industry includes the development of
alternative building materials that reduces the amount of energy spent
during manufacturing process and easier to work with. Wood-crete is a
composite material developed in this study, made up of wood waste
(sawdust), paper, tradical lime and water. Wood-crete is developed to
provide an alternative material in construction solving problems
associated with the delivery of low-cost housing across all income
earners, reducing the amount of energy spent during manufacturing
process of construction materials and the ease with which these
construction materials are developed and solve issues related to waste
management. This review presents the processing technologies, factors
which affect the performance and properties of wood-crete. Wood-crete
properties were found to be closely related to the composition of the
constituent elements though compressive strength and modulus of
elasticity were low when compared to other building materials like
concrete and steel. In a bid to improve the strength of the developed
wood-crete, the properties were investigated based on the modification
of sawdust by hot water boiling and alkaline treatments which help to
modify cellulose fibre surface to reduce the hydrophilic nature of
sawdust thereby improving the sawdust-matrix bonding. It was found
that the surface modification, processing of cellulosic fibril and the
extraction of lignin and hemi-cellulosic compounds with alkali had an
effect on the compressive strength of wood-crete, with treating sawdust
with 4% NaOH at 140mins of boiling time achieving the highest
compressive strength and boiling sawdust from 100mins to 140mins had
a gradual increase in compressive strength but reduced at higher boiling
time. Furthermore, treating sawdust with NaOH more than 4%
weakened the individual wood particles thus leading to poor strength of
wood-crete. The developed wood-crete was able to withstand impact
load and considered, like hempcrete, most suitable for wall panelling or
other non- and semi-structural applications with good thermal insulating
properties.

CONCLUSION: Wood-cement composites, that are of low price, have

been regarded as an critical make contributions to mitigate the housing
trouble in developing international locations . Making wood-cement
composites can be a feasible way of recycling wooden residues, like
waste from construction demolitions or preserved wood out of carrier,
or nonwood residues from agriculture or food processing 375
operations. However, this form of composites also provide the
opportunity of recycling fly ash, as a partial alternative for cement.