Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Research Article

Properties of the Compressed-Stabilized Earth Brick Containing Cork Granules

Salim Guettala^{1,3 *}, Mohamed Bachar¹and Lakhdar Azzouz²

¹Civil Engineering Department, University of Djelfa, 17000 Djelfa, Algeria

²Civil Engineering Department, University of Laghouat, 03000 Laghouat, Algeria

³Civil Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Biskra, 07000 Biskra, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Guettala S
Civil Engineering Research Laboratory
University of Biskra
07000 Biskra, USA
Tel: 713 33 54 31 60
E-mail: guettalasalim@yahoo.com

Received date: Apr 28, 2016; Accepted date: May 18, 2016 ; Published date: May 24, 2016, 2016

Citation: Guettala S, Bachar M, Azzouz L (2016) Properties of the Compressed-Stabilized Earth Brick Containing Cork Granules. J Earth Sci Clim Change 7:353. doi: 10.4172/2157-7617.1000353

Copyright: © 2016 Guettala S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This paper investigates the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of the compressed-stabilized earth brick containing cork granules. First part of paper highlights the influence of mass percentage of cement and dune sand on maximum dry density, the optimal water content and mechanical strengths. The results show that composition (58% soil, 30% dune sand, 12% cement) assures maximum dry density of 1.75 T/m3 with a compressive strength in the dry state of 2.87 MPa at 28 days. Then a test of static compaction is performed on this composition for four levels of applied stresses. The results show that compaction of 10 MPa has increased maximum dry density a rate of 0.23%, which corresponds to rate of increase of the compression strength in the dry state of 46.69%. Second part examines the effect of the addition of the cork granules in mass relative to the dry soil and which is suffered a the static compaction with the different applied stresses levels on the mechanical properties, maximum dry density and thermal conductivity of optimized mixture. The results indicate that for a static compacting of 10 MPa and 12% of cork granules, the dry density decreases an rate of 1.50%, the compressive strength in the wet state decreases an rate of 7.41% at 28 days and the thermal conductivity in the dry state significantly decreases an rate of 55% relative to optimized mixture without the incorporation of the cork granulates which improves therefore thermal insulation.

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