preprints.org > engineering > civil engineering > doi: 10.20944/preprints202112.0360.v2

Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 21 December 2021 / Approved: 22 December 2021 / Online: 22 December 2021 (12:11:21 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 10 January 2022 / Approved: 11 January 2022 / Online: 11 January 2022 (12:14:21 CET)

(This article belongs to the Research Topic Ecofriendly Materials)

This paper is part of a study of earthen mixtures for 3D printing of buildings. To meet the ever-growing environmental needs, the focus of the paper is on a particular type of biocomposite for the stabilization of earthen mixtures—the rice husk-lime biocomposite—and on how to enhance its effect on the long-term mechanical properties of the hardened product. Having assumed that the shredding of the vegetable fiber is precisely one of the possible ways to improve the mechanical properties, we compared the results of uniaxial compression tests performed on cubic specimens made with both shredded and unaltered vegetable fiber, for three curing periods. The results showed that the hardened earthen mixture is not a brittle material in the strict sense, because it exhibits some peculiar behaviors, anomalous for a brittle material. However, being a “designable” material, its properties can be varied with a certain flexibility to get as close as possible to the desired ones. One of the peculiar properties of the hardened earthen mixture deserves further investigation, rather than corrections. This is the vulcanization that occurs (in a completely natural way) in the long term, thanks to the mineralization of the vegetable fiber by carbonation of the lime.

earthen buildings; 3D printing; sustainability; biocomposites; aging; mechanical properties; lime carbonation; vulcanization

ENGINEERING, Civil Engineering