Estudo da viabilidade da utilização da fibra de coco babaçu em formulações de tijolo solo-cimento

Abstract

With the current socioeconomic context represented by the development of new materials and effective techniques of rapid execution, the production of ecological brick that is made from soil, water and cement becomes an alternative for the investment in low cost buildings with the use of disposal materials, resulting in lower environmental impacts and may benefit a housing unit's access to low-income populations. A great advantage of the use of ecological bricks in comparison with conventional masonry is due to the possibility of their manufacture allowing the addition of other materials that will result in the origin of the ceramic block with several required proportions. In this perspective, this work intends to analyze the characteristics of ecological bricks made with babassu coconut fiber. In order to meet the acceptance criteria for good mechanical strength and durability of ecological bricks, a series of tests were carried out with plots of graphs and tables aiming at compliance with the minimum requirements of ABNT 8491: 2012 for their construction. The preparation of babassu coconut fibers was carried out naturally without the use of chemicals in order to preserve the integrity of their intrinsic properties. In view of the above, this work aims to use bamboo fiber in the manufacture of ecological brick, with contents of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% adopting the 7/1 trace for soil proportion in relation to cement in view of the curing period at the ages of 7,14, 21 and 28 days for the wetting of the soil-cement brick. The sample of the soil collected for the construction of the ecological brick was submitted to the accomplishment of tests of granulometry, limits of consistency, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence of X-rays with the use of the equipments and the techniques of characterization adopted in the laboratory of PPGEM-IFPI. The soil- cement bricks with the incorporation of babassu coconut fiber that were produced by a simple and manual press underwent a characterization process, through dimensional analysis, simple compressive strength, water absorption and compaction pressure tests. The results showed that addition of babassu coconut fiber in the soil-cement brick positively influences the mechanical strength, thus obtaining a suitable material for the masonry construction system without structural function.