Using Sawdust and Wood Ash as a substitute for concrete in sustainable engineering.
Sawdust is typically woodmill waste, according to business waste, Waste sawdust is sent to industrial composting sites where it's processed alongside other organic waste, like food and garden waste. This large-scale composting recycles the sawdust into fresh organic matter that's used on farms, gardens, and other land.
There are other properties of Saw dust that mean it can be reused in other ways such as a substitute for concrete. Using sawdust, woodash and concrete, one can develop techniques to apply this waste byproduct in sustainability engineering to reduce cost and reuse waste.
According to research published by Wegdan W. El-nadoury of Alexandria University on research gate, here are a few properties of sawdust that can make it a useful substitute in sustainable engineering:
Previous research specified that natural fiber provides considerable reduction in weight of structure, improves sound absorbent properties owing to its excessive void ratio, facilitates handling, mixing and placing of mixtures competed to other types of concrete [2–3].
It is alsorecognized by its low production cost, less health hazards, and accessible processing [2–3].
An equally significant direction is the usage of industrial wastes in producing of building materials
with low density, sound and heat conductivity, as well as high physical and mechanical properties.These materials are used in casting cellular concrete for constructing the external and internal walls of buildings
[4–5]. Several studies describe the compositions and technology for producing cellular concrete from
lightweight geopolymers as an example of industrial wastes [6–13].
According to scholars, here is the physical and chemical properties of sawdust:
Table 2: Physical and chemical properties of sawdust.
|
Chemical properties |
Value |
Physical properties |
Value |
|
Extractives |
3.3 |
Moisture content |
10.8 |
|
Lignin |
29.3 |
Apparent specific gravity |
0.14 |
|
Hollocellulose |
83.8 |
Porosity (%) |
84 |
|
Carbon (C) (%) |
61.58 |
Water retention (%) |
50 |
|
Hydrogen (H) (%) |
5.32 |
Water drainage (mls-1) |
282.0 |
|
Oxygen (O) (%) |
33.04 |
|
|
|
Nitrogen (N) |
0 |
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|
|
Now let's explore the properties of wood ash:
Typically, wood ash contains the following major elements:
Carbon (C) — 5–30%.
Calcium (Ca) — 7–33%
Potassium (K) — 3–10%
Magnesium (Mg) — 1–2%
Manganese (Mn) — 0.3–1.3%
Phosphorus (P) — 0.3–1.4%
Sodium (Na) — 0.2–0.5%.
![Physical properties of wood ash [12].](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Swaptik-Chowdhury-2/publication/270163491/figure/tbl2/AS:669688883331093@1536677680863/Physical-properties-of-wood-ash-12.png)
To successfully combine these byproducts into structures for sustainable engineering, they would need to be mixed in part with concrete and their usecases would be limited to avoid compromising structures.
Here is a personally recommended numerical engineering for a mixture that would be effective as well as quality for outdoor interlocking tiles. Recommended numeric formulae below:
Ingredient |
Percentage % |
| Cement | 20 |
| Saw Dust | 24 |
| Wood Ash | 27 |
| Sand | 10 |
| Quarry Dust | 15-25 |
| Water | 11 |
Any changes in this formulae mixture might cause the cement to either set too quickly or not or alternatively it could affect the strength of the mixture.
Here is a personally recommended numerical engineering for a mixture that would be effective as well as quality for indoor or modular flooring stacked on joist flooring designed with either angle rods, 'I' beam or wood. The flooring can be cast into sheets with low square surface area for adequate load distribution.
Recommended numeric formulae below:
Ingredient |
Percentage % |
| Cement | 10 |
| Saw Dust | 44 |
| Wood Ash | 27 |
| Sand | 5 |
| POP | 14 |
| Water | 11 |
Below is the engineering structure built on joist flooring stacked with this mixture and can be finished with Vinyl or Wood Plastic Composite.
While its use cases are limited due to insufficient research, these outlined usecases are ways we can explore substituting with woodash and sawdust to reduce cost and reuse what would otherwise be waste.
For more personal research and reading on "Using Sawdust and Wood Ash as a substitute for concrete in sustainable engineering", feel free to click on any of the links to research further.
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