Search for Qualified Soil for the Production of Low-Energy Biobased Composite Materials

Abstract

The development of earth-based bio-sourced materials requires a thorough analysis of the study soil. For the present study, we took five (05) soil samples from a tunnel-digged quarry in the layer between 0.5 m and 5 m : white clay (MSB-BL), red clay (MSB-RG), weak clay or sandy clay (MSB-FB), strong clay (MSB-FR) and mixture (MSB-ME). To verify the quality of these five (05) soils samples, their intrinsic properties were determined at the National Building and Public Works Laboratory (LNBTP). These included grain size, clay content, specific weight, loss on ignition and moisture content. These analyses revealed that MSG-RG and MSG-BL clays have fine fractions of 64.28% and 47.85% respectively; clay fractions of 27.51% and 20.61% respectively; and methylene blue values in the range (6;8). Their plasticity indices are in the range (20;40). These two (02) clays thus meet the requirements in terms of granularity, and their relatively high clay fraction will favor their adhesion with admixtures such as plant fibers. What's more, the particle size distribution of these clays is within the ideal CRAterre range for soils used in the manufacture of BTC or adobes, so they are all eligible.