HomeInterdisciplinary Research Journalvol. 9 no. 1 (2019)

Compressive Strength Properties of Rice Straw Composite Board using Cementitious Materials

MARIA CRISELLA DC PELAEZ

 

Abstract:

As the world responds to solving climate change issues, the construction industry still looks for sound strategies, not just structures, to provide construction materials in which the utilization of agricultural wastes is one of the many techniques that promote green engineering through technological approaches. Rice straw fibers are among the common agricultural wastes burned in the fields for easy disposal that bring health hazards to the community. The utilization of this agricultural waste into a valuable construction material prompted the interest in investigating its properties. This experimental study focused on the compressive strength characterization of rice straw composite board as a result of variations of cementitious materials. Cementitious materials used were gypsum powder, cement, and tile grout in different design mixtures. Results show that the optimum design was attained at 70% gypsum powder, 15% cement and 15% tile grout mixture with 3.57 MPa tested at 28 days with water-cementitious ratio of 0.43 and fiber-cementitious ratio of 0.05. The results gathered from the study demonstrated the potential of rice straw composite board as a substitute for a decorative drywall panel.