Enhanced thermal resistance of rammed earth blocks with recycled industry by-products.

Abstract Design, construction and operation of built environments emit 40% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Search for alternative building materials is imperative for ensuring sustainable habitat for world's increasing population. Rammed earth is one such material with dramatically lower embodied energy and emission than concrete or brick. This paper explores further reduction of operational emission of rammed earth by improving its thermal resistance by recycling industrial by-products such as crumb rubber. The dividend from the introduction of the filler material is examined. The results have been validated with experimental data. Effect of volume fraction, size, shape and spatial distribution of the filler has been presented. It is noted that the recycled fillers considerably improve the thermal insulation. However, they induce increased thermal stress on rammed earth. Thus, a trade-off between strength and thermal resistance needs to be reached. The results would be useful for arriving at an optimal spatial design of the filler to achieve the target thermal resistance and strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]