Properties of lightweight wall panels made up of rice hull, fiber glass, and mortalite

• Main Authors: Delgado, Mark Andrew L., Pascual, Shurwin Kim M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Wall panels > Testing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/12158
• Institution: De La Salle University

Hasty, efficiency, economy, and strength these are the deciding factors of engineering construction in modern times. Materials have evolved from their weaker states through combinations of properties of one material another. Engineering fields are now introducing innovative materials that could aid in reducing the time of building structures. Pre-cast materials, like prefabricated walls, have been spreading all over the market and have been used in construction purposes. These materials are extensively used in the industry and that varying types of these are formed with materials of unidentified strength. The prefabricated wall panel studied in this research has mixtures of rice hull and fiber glass with mortalite (RFM) and can be used in the construction of interior non-load bearing walls of building of all types of construction. The present paper investigates the material properties of RFM wall panels under bending and compression loads in order to improve better understanding of their structural components. The said tests were performed according to relevant ASTM standards such as ASTM E 72-05. The specimen is loaded in increments to allow detection of failure in flexural tests for horizontal bearing panels and also for axial compression as well. Results of the three (3) compression tests and six (6) bending tests on full size 1.2 x 2.4 x 0.1 m walls are presented and it showed that the tested RFM wall panels cannot match the strength capacity of wood-based and concrete walls.