Description
Climate change and global warming have recently led to a notable shift towards sustainable design practices within the civil engineering community. Earthen construction materials are sustainable due to their local character with reduced transportation needs, low embodied and operational energy, and ease of recyclability. In this context, this work presents an experimental investigation of compressed earth materials enhanced with natural flax fibers. The primary objective is to investigate the influence of fibers on both the mechanical and thermal properties of the material with the ultimate aim of developing a novel type of masonry earth brick. Samples from two soil types (namely the clayey silt Bouisset and the sandy silt Nagen), incorporating distinct percentages of fibers, were statically compacted at a target dry density of 1900 kg/m3 inside a metallic mould with inner dimension of 40x40x160 mm3. The samples have then been subjected to 3-point bending and compression tests, as well as thermal conductivity tests. Results indicate that the addition of fibers improves the compressive and bending strengths of the samples, especially for the Nagen earth. Instead, the inclusion of fibers has a negligible effect on thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity. Only for the Bouisset earth, the thermal diffusivity improves with increasing fiber content, thus resulting in faster heat transfer.
