IMPROVING THE METHODOLOGY OF LABORATORY TESTS TO EXPLORE SENSITIVITY OF BUILDING MATERIALS TO FUNGAL GROWTH: CASE OF BIO- BASED EARTH MATERIALS

Author(s): Aurélie Laborel-Préneron, Kouka Ouédraogo, Alexis Simons, Matthieu Labat, Alexandra Bertron, Camille Magniont, Christine Roques, Christophe Roux and Jean-Emmanuel Aubert
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: Proceedings of the Final Conference of RILEM 253-MCI Microorganisms-Cementitious Materials Interactions Volume II
Editor(s): Alexandra Bertron and Henk Jonkers
ISBN: 978-2-35158-207-7 (Set)
ISBN: 978-2-35158-210-7 (Volume 2)
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-206-0
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2018
Pages: 367-376
Total Pages: 308
Language : English

Abstract: As people spend more than 80% of their time indoors, the impact of buildings on occupant's health is a major issue. Indeed, diseases can be caused by mold for example, already present in a high number of dwellings. When developing a material, the sensibility of the material to microbial growth should be assessed to avoid such problem. However, few studies focus on that topic and no international standardized method exist to investigate fungal growth on building materials. The objective of this paper is thus to propose a simple and efficient experimental method to evaluate the resistance to fungal proliferation in construction materials laboratories. Fungal growth of earth material containing or not barley straw is investigated under different climate conditions. The samples were inoculated with a strain of Aspergillus brasiliensis and were incubated over 12 weeks at 76, 84 and 93% of relative humidity and at a temperature of 30°C and 20°C. The results show a fungal growth only on samples exposed to 30°C and 93% of relative humidity, particularly for those containing barley straw. The resistance to mold seems to be high for earth alone samples.

Online publication : 2018
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 0.00