Development of Biochar-Reinforcing Low-Cost Soil Based Roofing Sheet
摘要
Development of Soil-based building components is a sustainable & low-cost research trend. Due to health concerns, governors are trying to ban asbestos fiber cement roofing sheets. Researchers have developed roofing sheets using pretreated fibers as an alternative. The chemical pretreated fiber cement roofing sheets have different drawbacks. Pyrolysis is a process that heats the fibrous material at a low or absence of oxygen concentrations to make biochar. The focused research has developed a biochar reinforcing roofing sheet with soil, cement & earth soil. Biochar provides nucleation sites for the soil-cement matrix. Bamboo and rice husk were chosen as the two sources of biochar to be compared. After mixing all the material with water, the mixture was spread on an iron frame. Then, the spread frame was kept vibrating for 10–15 min. Then, the mixture was molded on a roofing sheet template. After one day, the sheet was removed. The water was sprayed on the sheet to cure. After a three-day interval, the sheet was immersed in a water tank for further curing. Then, after 24 h, the sheets were removed from the tank and kept in a shady, dry place. The sheets were taken for test characteristics after 28 days. The sheets were tested according to SLS standards. The breaking load test, density test, water absorption test, water tightness test, and resistance to acidified water were conducted. The best performance was shown by the 50% cement, 10% sand, 39% earth soil & 1% rice husk biochar composition.