Assessment of polyvinyl alcohol–stabilized compressed earth bricks on performance and durability of structures

Earth bricks are well known to be sustainable, cheap and have thermal insulation capacity. Their structural performance is however, hampered by poor compressive strength, durability as well as high water absorption. In a bid to overcome such hurdles, the current work discusses the prospect of using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a stabilizing additive in a bid to lower environmental burden due to cement manufacture. Cement contributes a lot to the CO2 emissions, but the environmental fate of PVA has not been compared adequately with that of cement. In recent years there have been an increasing number of studies examining the environmental trade-offs of using PVA with emphasis on its potential to decrease cement content in earth bricks. Bricks were made with 5% cement content and different proportions of PVA (3, 4, 5, 6 and 7% ). The experimental findings indicated that bricks containing 5% PVA had the highest increment in compressive strength, water resistance and durability compared to other mixes. In addition, the paper has also pointed out that the environmental impact of PVA, albeit minor, when compared to that of cement, is also a significant consideration when looking at the overall sustainability of the material. The present work implies that PVA cannot substitute cement and is a synergistic agent that can provide the same performance with a significantly reduced cement content, making it a more sustainable option. The findings will be of use to similar growing literature on low-carbon and high-performance building materials, more so with consideration to the climatic change, resource shrinkage, and growing need of affordable housing in flood-prone regions. This paper presents a sustainable, up mountable process of manufacturing high quality compressed earth bricks, to support climate resilient infrastructure and sustainable growth.