Physical and Chemical Properties of Horns Sheaths Particles for the Manufacture of Composite Materials

Salvaged cow horns from slaughterhouses have been transformed into fine particles for a physical characterization that has led us to determine the humidity rate (2.34% ± 0.054%), the actual density situated between 0.586 g/cm3 and 0.732 g/cm3, the swelling rate (12%), and one chemical characterization that permitted us to determine the rate of dry matters (97.05%), of mineral matters (2.5%), of protein matters (94.52%). From these weak values, it can easily be seen that cow horn case doesn’t absorb much water and improve the mechanical characteristics of the composite;the high rate of protein shows that keratin which is the structural molecule favors its gripping as reinforcing element in the manufacturing of composite materials.

Thermal and Mechanical Characterization of Compressed Clay Bricks Reinforced by Rice Husks for Optimizing Building in Sahelian Zone

This article deals with the characterization of local materials used in insulation building heat. These materials are bricks of earth compressed and stabilized with rice husks. Thermal conductivity, the specific heat and the thermal diffusivity of materials based on clay incorporating rate of 0, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% are determined. The results showed that the clay blocks + rice balls had better thermal insulators than simple clay blocks. However, these composite materials used for the envelope of the building must have sufficient mechanical resistance when used in construction. The measurement of mechanical properties such as compressive strength showed an improvement of 6% and beyond, a drop in resistance when increasing rice husks in clay is observed. These results allow to specify the optimal conditions of use of these materials for the building envelope.

Influence of the Colorless Waste Glass on the Mineralogical, Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of Clay Material from Wack (Adamawa, Cameroon)

This study reports the investigation of the influence of adding waste glass on the properties of fired clay specimen. Four different particle sizes (smaller than 100 μm, 300μm, 500μm, and 800 μm) of waste glass were mixed with a clay material at contents of 0%, 2%, 6% and 10% per weight. Specimen samples were fired at 750℃ in an electrical furnace for 6 hours, at a heating rate of 5℃/min. The physical and mechanical properties of terracotta are studied. The chemical analysis revealed that the clays were dominated by kaolinite and montmorillonite with small proportion of mixed layers clay. The fine grained texture (0.002 mm > 25%) and high plasticity (WP > 30%) of the clays were responsible for the moderate and high values of shrinkage upon oven drying and firing. The firing color variation from reddish brown shade was due to the amounts of iron and titanium oxides present in the obtained material. The water absorption was varied between 17.40% and 13.70%, while the linear shrinkage was estimated to be between 0.70% and 1.20% and the flexural strength from 5.30 to 8.10 MPa. These results showed that mixing clay with waste glass at 750℃ is an interesting approach to obtain reddish brown ceramics destined for bricks or roofing tiles.

Physico-Mechanical Properties of Bio-Based Bricks

The aim of this work is to improve the high performance of mud bricks. The latter was reinforced with rice straws as stabiliser leading to an improvement of the physico-mechanical properties. Thus, the physical characteristics of the clay such as natural water content, density, atterberg limit, plasticity limit (Wp) and plasticity index (Ip) were determined. Their values are respectively 8.39%, 2025.73 Kg/m3, 47.66%, 29.75% and 17.91%. The clay used is a low plastic organic silt. The normal proctocol provided an optimum dry density (ɣOP) of 1.28 Kg/m3 at an optimum moisture content of 12.42%. The actual density of the straw is 464 Kg/m3, its absorption rate reached 206% in 5 mins and stabilised at 385% at 480 mins of immersion. The maximum bending and compression strengths are respectively 1.52 and 0.164 MPa. The mud brick absorption coefficients obtained are between 4.875 at 0% straw and 20.573% at 3% straw.

Characteristics and Mechanicals Potentials of Wood Adhesives Manufactured with Grasses’ Lignins

In order to manufacture environmentally friendly particle boards and enhance local resources, the lignins of Sorghum bicolor and Andropogon gayanus characterized using RMN 13C and MALDI TOF have the same structures. They contents Guaiacyl (G), Syringyl (S), p-hydroxyphenylpropane (H) and functional groups of phenols, flavonoids and secondary alcohols. The total phenol content determinated using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent is respectively 20.97 and 15.42 mg eqgallic acid/g of extract. The power of their adhesives is different. The Internal Bond (IB) of particleboards manufactured with these adhesives are respectively 0.37 MPa and 0.41 MPa. These lignins can be used as antioxydants.