|
Background:
Materials like wood, stone, bark of trees, straw, hide of animals have been
used in construction of house from the primitive era. With the advent of new
technology and design procedure, steel, concrete, wood and glass have become
the mainstream in the construction of structure. Special design skills and
codified procedures are required to construct a structure using these
materials. Also these materials are expensive and rely on limited natural
resources. To abate this problem alternate building materials like straws,
grass, or reed, which are inexpensive and easily available, have been used
throughout the history. As for example, homestead in the
northwestern Nebraska began using straw bale or simply mixture of straw with
mortar in the 1890s due to dearth of lumber wood for walls of building. Even
usage of straw/reed in construction of houses began more than 200 years ago in
Europe. The technique for constructing walls has been recently revived as a low
cost alternative for building highly insulating walls. The technique was
practiced in the plains states in the latter 1800's and early 1900's. Many of
the early structures are still standing and being used. Very recently
straw-bale building in Arizona has paved the way of usage alternate building materials.
As a result, paper-bale also has become the alternate materials. Paper-bale
building erected upon 1000 ft2 in campus of University of Arizona is
a paradigm of building using alternate materials. The current research is
conducted to find the applicability of non-recyclable shredded paper both as
the load bearing wall as well as in-fill materials between the structural
members. The experimental result will try to establish approximate mechanical
properties and behavior of the shredded paper bale. Also its behavior will be
compared to the behavior of other common construction materials like straw
bales that have been accepted as alternate construction materials. The advantages and disadvantages
will be discussed in this research paper. Also the suitability and
environmental location will be decided to construct paper bale house. Some
future correction like fire resistant, moisture absorbent criteria will be
discussed so that some code can be generated to use in practical design
purpose. Introduction: Paper
is the most sought after material in our day-to-day life. As a result, it
contributes chief portion to solid waste. According to 1990 update by EPA,
paper and paperboard chip in 40% by wt (34% by volume) of the municipal solid
waste (MWS) in the United States. This is projected to increase 48% (by weight)
by the year 2010. This high volume of waste paper is imposing a great challenge
of disposal and also increasing the price of collection and hauling. Recent
study shows that 80% of solid waste is land filled and 20% solid waste is
delivered to recycling. Even with this potential of recycling, reuse,
composting, and incineration, a large portion of waste paper is non-recyclable
and is delivered to landfill. Landfill by hazardous materials
like non-recyclable waste paper involves extra work and money. Even composting or bedding with the paper in
the soil may cause pollution of soil layer and groundwater. The ink of paper
consisted of carbon toner contain hazardous elements. This ink can easily
percolate to deep into the soil layer by precipitation and run-off of water,
which in turn percolate to the GW layer. This defiles both soil and water. To reduce this environmental
problem, solid waste management and engineers are trying to use them as
alternate way. At last University of Arizona came up with the idea of using
paper as an alternate construction material. This idea of efficient utilization
of shredded paper can reduce solid waste volume as well as construction cost.
Again, the Building walls with paper bales can be done with unskilled labor,
and the low costs. But before begin working with the alternate material some
properties or behavior need to be studied and tested. Recent renewed interest in straw
bale or paper bale construction makes engineering properties associated with
the material a necessity. For this reason some experiment have been carried on
the paper bale in the laboratory. This paper will produce some experimental
data and mechanical properties found by the lab experiment such as Load vs Deformation curve Stress vs strain curve Curve fitting equation Density of paper bale Absorption test Modulus of elasticity Further experiment on the paper
bale with especially designed machine can enhance and give more reliable data.
Also, more time is required to accomplish the experiment on paper bale for
finding exact behavior and properties of paper bale. Fire resistant and
moisture content of paper able should be analyzed according to AASHTO standard
for which exact lab environment is necessary. Literature Search: A
preliminary literature was found from Dr. Amir Malek, Professor of civil
engineering Department of NMSU, who was involved in similar project at
University of Arizona. Mainly the straw bale home construction and paper bale
building in Arizona is the most interesting and inspiring issue for this
project. In fact, recent publication on the straw bale construction in the
Internet was the main source of the report to be completed. Some design
criteria and excerpt from the repot published from the Department of energy
have been restated here for the sake of understanding of prototype home
construction using bale of different size. Straw bales come in all shapes and sizes, from small
two-string bales to larger three-string bales and massive cubical or round
bales. The medium sized rectangular three-string bales are preferred for
building construction. Three-string bales are better structurally, have higher
R-value, and are often more compact. A typical medium-sized, three-wire bale
may be 23" X 16" X 42" and may weigh from 75 to 85 pounds. The
smaller two-wire bales, which are easier to handle, are roughly 18"
X14" X 36" and weigh 50 to 60 pounds. If the current trend continues,
it may not be long before "construction-grade" bales begin to appear. The design criteria for the construction prototype home
Of course these criteria will be
equally applicable for the construction of house using paper bale. Also
guidelines for the straw bale fit to paper bale except for the R-value and
moisture content. The R-value is still expected higher than straw bale, yet to
be determined. Source of waste paper:
Physical plant department of New Mexico State University is a chief source of
shredded paper. According to University Physical plant department, every day
nearly 20 tons of solid waste is collected among which 40% is wasted office and
computer paper. Before processing for disposal waste papers are shredded into
small pieces and put into large plastic bag. Each bag nearly weighs 40 kg. To
collect these paper bag from the physical plant department possible discussion
are made with the concern people over the telephone and cooperation was got in
all respect. For this purpose a hauler was arranged to carry these materials
from the physical plant to concrete lab. Approximately, 7 bags were collected
for this experiment and each bag contained shredded printer paper usually used
in the computer lab for printing document. This paper bags were sufficient for
this experiment. Methodology: One of the most hardest part of making paper bale is to
give a proper size and shape of the paper bale. First, a plastic bag has been
used for the purpose of making bale of shredded paper. A cardboard was placed
beneath the bag to provide base for shredded paper. After putting some shredded
paper in the bag, it was pressed by flat steel plate by the head of the
compression machine. The shape of the sample was shown in figure X. the shape
was quite inchoate. For getting better cubical shape of paper a mold made of
steel would be prepared. But for the inconvenience of carrying and cost of
making steel mold decision was changed to make wooden mold. For this pupose,
some pieces of wood, nails, saw have been bought from the Suther land located
in Elpseo road. Then woods are cut into pieces by the saw. These pieces are
joined together by the nail to form a mold of 10”X 7”X7”. The mold was a hollow
cubical shape with open top and bottom end. Mold with the top cover are shown
in figure X. The top cover with handle was made for putting pressure on the
shredded paper inside the mold. The cover could easily slide into the mold. Its
surface area was 9.5”X6.75” slightly less than the top area of mold for
convenience of sliding inside the mold. The handle of nearly 7” height and 5”
thick was attached with cover to apply pressure on the shredded paper inside
mold. Making sample: first
shredded paper from the plastic bag is put into the mold then temper with the
rod to compact the material inside mold. Then pressure upto 20000lb was applied
gradually to shredded paper to compact them. Again, more shredded paper was
inserted inside the mold using same procedure. At least four layers of shredded
paper are required to make one sample of approximate 4” thick. This making
procedure was shown in figure X. After getting sample of desire
thickness, sample is tied with galvanized wire to keep the different layers
together. For this purpose, sample is taken out of the mold then top cover is
placed after putting wire on the sample. The tying process is shown in figure X.
Each sample consists of three string ties. 12 samples of slightly different
size have been made using same procedure. Generally, 3-4 hours are required to
make one sample of paper bale using compression machine. May be baler machine
require less time to make paper bale. Problem involved: making mold with the wood is big problem. Because first it was assumed that shredded paper would not exert lateral pressure to the sidewall of the mold. But as the experiment progressed, the joint of the mold became separated along the nail-joint. Again the mold was hammered to keep the joint together during sampling. It involved system loss during experiment i.e killing time. Another problem was the compression head used in this experiment. It was not the desired head for this experiment because it was tapered down toward the top surface causing difficulty in the experiment. The dial gauge used in this experiment has some error, which can be neglected. |