Development and Use of Grasscrete Pavement Unit with Carbon Sequestration
摘要
This study explores Grasscrete as an innovative and sustainable building material that integrates contrete’s structural strength with environmental benefits by incorporating green vegetation into its open-cell structure. Grasscrete minimizes contrete’s usage, enhances rainwater absorption, reduces urban heat, and supports carbon sequestration by promoting plant growth. This study focuses on developing Grasscrete pavement units with key aspect: carbon sequestration. Additionally, the response of the materials to elevated temperatures (100–600 °C) was studied to assess their performance under extreme conditions. A comprehensive methodology was used while material selection, preparation of elephant grass powder, and designing different contrete’s mix with varying percentage of grass powder (2, 5, and 10%) with industrial by-products such as glass powder, GGBS and limestone powder. By using limestone powder, it not only increased the workability and filler properties of the mix but also contributed to CO₂ reduction by adding these supplementary materials, the use of cement per cubic meter was reduced by 50%, significantly lowering the overall carbon footprint and promoting sustainable construction practices. After analysing three groups of Contrete’s mixes with 2, 5, and 10% grass powder demonstrated varying compressive strengths over time. The 2% mix (Group 1) achieved the strength of 64.10 N/mm2 at 28 days. The 5% mix (Group 2) achieved the strength of 36.64 N/mm2 at 28 days, while the 10% mix (Group 3) reached 60.21 N/mm2 at 28 days. The contrete’s mix design was compared with conventional M60 contrete’s, demonstrating approximately 32% lower embodied energy. This reduction is attributed to the use of sustainable components such as recycled materials and industrial byproducts, showcasing their potential for eco-friendly construction applications.