Locust Bean Pod Solutions as Alternative Binder for Laterite – Rice Husk Fibre Composite Tile Production

Abstract

The pursuit for locally sourced economical and environmentally safe materials has been on the increase in the development of composite ceiling tiles over the years. These locally sourced materials are organic materials from plants and livestock such as rice husk, locust bean pod, feathers, maize husk and bamboo fibre. Therefore, this study incorporated laterite (LAT) and Rice Husk Fibre (RHF) in the development of composite ceiling tiles. Composite ceiling tiles mixes studied with LAT and RHF of varied proportions (70:30 to 30:70 at 10% step intervals) with varied Locust Bean Pod Solution (LBPS) concentrations (50g/l, 30g/l and 10g/l) as the binders in comparison with Portland cement – PC (the control sample) at 0.6 water-binder ratio. 400 x 400 x 40 mm and 450 x 450 x 75 mm slates were produced for the water absorption and flexural strength tests using a compactive effort of 5MN/m2 employed for the manual operated pressing. The specimens were tested after 14 days of air-curing after been oven-dried for 24 hours at a temperature of 80 °C. The results revealed that all the samples exhibited increased flexural strength as the LAT contents increases at a decreased RHF content with the 60:40 (LAT:RHF) mix observed as optimum for all LBPS concentrations. An increasing trend of water absorption rate was observed with an increase in fibre contents. The study therefore recommends 60:40 LAT:RHF with 50g/l LBPS concentration for composite ceiling tile production.