Sawdust: An Alternative Sand in Concrete Bricks

Authors

  • Desiree S. Sulibet
  • Elizabeth R. Guran
  • Reign Faith Arwen D. Ba

Keywords:

sawdust, agricultural lime, concrete brick

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Waste management became one of the major problems in terms of environmental and economic issues. There are many pollutants that are mainly caused by these waste materials. One of this is sawdust that comes from cutting woods. The purpose of this study is to increase the usage rate of sawdust. Sawdust as an alternative substitute for sand in making concrete bricks can be used in construction. The researchers used this material because this is considered as an agricultural waste but actually, has still many uses. This is also can be part of the reuse, reduce, and recycle campaign of the government. This study is made to bring a new life for sawdust by turning it into bricks.

 

METHODS

This research is an Experimental study that shows the different ratios in making sawdust brick using sawdust, agricultural lime, cement and water. The researchers made a sample of sawdust brick with 4.5cm x 4cm x 2cm. Three sets of sawdust bricks were made to make a good quality of sawdust brick. Three samples from the best set of sawdust brick was tested in termsof durability, fire resistance and water absorption. For the durability of the product, different weights were used. The samples were exposed to the fire thrower to test fire resistance and submerged in water to test water absorption.

 

RESULTS

This study was conducted to produce an alternative bricks made up of sawdust. The set with the highest amount of sawdust became the most durable brick and was determined by using two-way ANOVA. From this product, three samples were tested by exposing each to fire with time duration to test its fire resistance. Cracks were visible after 30 minutes but maintained its length until one hour. Change in color was also visible. It turned into brownish black color. In porosity test, 19.74% is the absorption of water in sawdust bricks. Lastly, the researchers used different weights to test its durability. The sawdust brick remained solid with 200g of weight s when released on 35 inches height and started to split with the heaviest weight of 600g.

 

DISCUSSIONS

The results show that in fire resistance test the bricks had a partial crack so it needs more improvement. In durability test, the one with the high amount of sawdust becomes the most durable and effective one. Moreover, in porosity test the capability of sawdust bricks is near to the standard of absorption. It is recommended for the future researchers to use machines for better testing and improve the formulation of the product to be more durable.

Published

2019-01-18