Improving the Thermal and Structural Characteristics of Concrete Hollow Blocks using Potato Agro Waste
Received: 28 February 2025 | Revised: 6 April 2025 | Accepted: 19 April 2025 | Online: 4 June 2025
Corresponding author: Rand J. Farhat
Abstract
The building envelope is a predominant component in the energy consumption of architectural space. The lower energy efficiency the envelope achieves, the higher energy consumption is required to maintain thermal comfort in architectural space. This paper aims to explore the effect of using potato agro-waste on the thermal and structural characteristics of concrete hollow blocks. Utilizing agro-waste in building blocks is not a novelty, yet, targeting highly engineered materials, like Cellulose Nano Platelets (CNP), leverages nano-scale reinforcement, thus achieving enhanced properties with less materials. Using quantitative experimental methods, CNP modified concrete specimens are compared to control specimens. At 0.20wt% and 0.40wt%, CNP shows significant improvement in thermal conductivity. The compressive, flexural, and tensile strength were also improved with the addition of 0.20wt% CNP, whereas 0.4wt% addition recorded strength values similar to those of the control mix. The initial and secondary rate of absorption was remarkably improved for the mix with 0.2wt% of CNP. The optimum amount of CNP to be added was, thus, 0.2wt%, the results of which were used to perform environmental simulation employing DesignBuilder and SimaPro. The percentage of dissatisfied people for Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) between -0.5 and 0.5 is less when deploying modified hollow blocks for the walls. The use of potato agro-waste modified concrete hollow blocks reduces the zone sensible heating and zone sensible cooling of a space, lowering the energy requirements for comfort optimization and, therefore, enhancing the building's energy efficiency.
Keywords:
agro waste, concrete hollow blocks, environmental performance, thermal comfortDownloads
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Copyright (c) 2025 Rand J. Farhat, Ibtihal Y. El-Bastawissi, Ashraf Mansour, Maged Youssef
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