AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON EARTHEN MATERIALS STABILIZED BY ALKALINE ACTIVATOR

Author(s): Q.-B. Bui, E. Prudhomme, A.-C. Grillet, N. Prime
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: ICBBM 2017 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Bio-Based Building Materials
Editor(s): Sofiane AMZIANE and Mohammed SONEBI
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-192-6
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2017
Pages: 155-160
Total Pages: 6
Language : English

Abstract: Earth is an ancient building material which has been recently the focus of scientific research because of the significant heritage of earthen buildings throughout the world. Moreover, a renaissance of earth constructions has been observed due to sustainable properties of this material. However, the disadvantage of earthen material is its low strength and its sensibility to the water content. To enhance the durability and the mechanical characteristics of earthen material, hydraulic binders are currently added (cement or lime). These hydraulic binders have high embodied energy and therefore increase the embodied energy of the stabilized earth material.In order to find an alternative binder, other components are tested. This paper presents an exploratory study which uses geopolymer as a stabilizer for earthen material. Geopolymers are inorganic binders with polymeric structure obtained by alkaline activation of raw materials containing silicon and aluminum; they are obtained by dissolution/precipitation reactions at low temperature. The present study proposes to use blast furnace slag as geopolymer raw material, which was mixed with an alkaline solution activator to obtain the stabilizer for earthen material. The furnace slag is an industrial waste and its recycling reduces the binder’s environment impact. The geopolymer effects were investigated on two types of earthen material: rammedearth (RE, soil dynamically compacted) and soil-geopolymer-concrete (soil poured with more water content). The results show that geopolymer had more effects in soil-concrete than in rammed-earth. Indeed, RE specimens stabilized by geopolymer did not present a significant improvement of compressive strength comparing to the unstabilized RE specimens. Soilgeopolymer-concrete specimens had double compressive strength comparing to soil-cementconcrete specimens. However, the results obtained on specimens stabilized by geopolymer were still relatively low (<3 MPa). The geopolymer amount, the quantity and type of clays present in the used soil could have influences on the results.

Online publication : 2017
Publication type : full_text
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