Enhancing the Properties of Gypsum as an Indoor Finishing Material Using Palm Tree Residues

2016
Volume 2
Issue 2
Basic and Applied Sciences Journal

Environment-friendly materials are used in natural architecture to protect the buildings from outside environment and to safeguard the resilience of materials used. Palm tree residues are spread in Saudi Arabia on a large scale, and rarely used in the construction.  The majority of uncontrolled wastes of palm are accumulated producing serious environmental problems. On the other hand, Gypsum is one of the oldest raw materials used in construction. It is a handy, low cost, and widely spread material that can be utilized for different uses in the built environment. This paper examined the viability of adding palm tree sawdust to Gypsum powder to produce blocks for indoor use.  The effects of adding palm sawdust to Gypsum were investigated in the laboratories at the University of Dammam. Different ratios of the admixtures were added by weight. It was concluded that the shrinkage value, weight, and porosity value were significantly reduced by increasing the ratio of sawdust to Gypsum powder, whereas compressive strength was increased at the same time. The study explored the optimum ratio of sawdust to improve the properties of the cubes. Results will encourage industries to produce and improve Gypsum cubes containing agricultural residues to develop low cost building materials.

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