The Development of Stabilised Clay-Hemp Building Material for Sustainability and Low Carbon Use

Abstract

This paper reports on stabilised clay-hemp building material for sustainability and low carbon use. Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) was used as a partial substitute for conventional stabiliser (lime or Portland cement) to stabilise Lower Oxford Clay (LOC) incorporating industrial hemp. The development of stabilised clay-hemp building material is expected to underpin the potential of commercial production of non-fired stabilised hemp walls, hemp blocks and hemp bricks, with a potential to offer an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional concrete, fired clay bricks and cement bricks. The parameters considered in this study are: material characterisation, unconfined compressive strength, linear expansion and cost. The 50-day linear expansion results for the test specimens showed that the maximum overall expansion rate for all the stabilised mixtures was 2%. The expansion behaviour of all stabilised clay-hemp material was significantly reduced with the presence of GGBS. The cost analysis results showed that the stabilised clay-hemp material manufactured with lime – GGBS system had the lowest net present value.