Earth Construction Research Paper

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study Earth is a universal walling material which has been known to humanity dating back many centuries in some civilization and has been used for construction in many countries. (Heathcote, 1995; Bahar et al., 2004) in (Burroughs, 2009). According to Harris (2010), Earth is one of the most abundant, most locally available, cheapest and lowest impact materials possible to build with. Over one third of the world’s population live in houses built from earth, and over 70% of the earth’s landmass is either pure clay or laterite.

Houben and Guillaud. (1984) valso stated that Earth as a construction material has been used for thousands of years by civilizations all

In the tradition of earth construction, we can recognize numerous building methods with infinity of varieties reflecting the identity of the locations and cultures.

According to Houben and Guillaud. (1984), among all the varied application of earth in building, seven are commonly used and represent the main classes of techniques, these techniques are Adobe, Rammed Earth, Cob, Straw Clay, Wattle and Daub, Direct shaping or shaped earth and Compressed Earth Bricks.

According to Rigassi, (1985), compressed earth bricks are modern descendent of the moulded earth block, more commonly known as the adobe block. The earth compressed bricks became widely used around the world in the last 30 years or more, not only in third world countries, but also in developed countries like the USA, France, Canada and Australia. (Al-Sakkaf, 2009).

Compressed earth bricks are made by compaction of a suitable soil in a mould under pressure. The moulding process can be carried out at a range of scales and levels of technology from simple manual processes to large integrated brick production plants producing thousands of bricks per

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is acknowledged as the major construction material throughout the world. The production rate is approximately 2.1 billion tons per year and is expected to grow to about 3.5 billion tons per year by 2015 (Coulinho, 2003) in (Ajileye, 2012). According to Adepegba (1989) in Ajileye (2012), the annual cement requirement in Nigeria is about 8.2 million tons and only 4.6 million tons of Portland cement is produced locally. The balance of 3.6 million tons or more is imported. If alternative cheap cement can be produced locally, the demand for Portland cement will reduce. (Ajileye, 2012) Another consequence that of the high energy consumption necessary for manufacture of cement and the consequent environmental damage caused by the release of high quantities of greenhouse gases during its production, the cement industry has been pointed out as one of the major contributors of anthropogenic CO2 emissions with about 5% globally. (Worrell et al; 2001); (Klee, 2008) in (Ramirez et al