Abstract

The building industry is a major contributor to sequestering carbon dioxide. The use of renewable, sustainable raw materials in the building industry is necessary in order to reduce carbon emissions. Lime-hemp concrete is a relatively new sustainable building material. It is a light composite building material that consists of building limes as binding agents and hemp shives as reinforcing and insulating material. It however requires the use of a load-bearing structure, usually a wooden framework. Hygroscopic properties of lime-hemp concrete are advantageous but mechanical strength could be improved. Contemporary lime-hemp concretes only use the woody core part of the hemp, the shive. Using both hemp shives and fibres may improve mechanical strength. This would also eliminate the fibre separation process. This research elucidates the feasibility of lime-hemp concrete as a load-bearing building material, using the entire fragmented hemp stem. Five various compositions of the cementitious binding agents hydrated lime, hydraulic lime and cement were tested. They vary from a mixture with mostly hydrated lime to a mixture with only cement. The proportion of hemp to the proportion of binder in volume is 3:1 in all the mixtures. In total 162 test cubes and cylinders were made and tested after 6 weeks in a carbonatation tank (4,5 vol% CO2). The test specimens were tested for mechanical strength, water sorption and frost resistance. LHC can be a contributor to new ways of thinking about architecture and construction as it has different material properties than more conventional building materials such as brick and concrete. The use of LHC as a building material in Sweden could increase the market for Swedish hemp, while introducing a durable and sustainable building material

Keywords

concrete; cement; hemp; lime

Published in

Title: proceedings
Publisher: Inte angivet

Conference

Sustainable Building 2008

SLU Authors

• De Bruijn, Paulien

  • Department of Rural Buildings and Animal Husbandry [LBT], Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Jeppsson, Knut-Håkan

  • Department of Rural Buildings and Animal Husbandry [LBT], Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Nilsson, Christer

  • Department of Rural Buildings and Animal Husbandry [LBT], Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Agricultural Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/22141