Sugarcane bagasse ash brick as a novel insulator for dwellings

Sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA), which is generally landfilled, was characterised on the basis of its physico-chemical properties. The characterisation proved its suitability as a pozzolanic material. SBA bricks were then fabricated incorporating quarry dust as fine aggregate and lime as a binder. The developed SBA bricks were tested for their physico-mechanical and thermo-physical properties in accordance with Indian standards. The physico-mechanical results showed that the SBA bricks were light in weight and met the necessary strength requirements. To analyse the indoor temperature of the developed material over conventional commercially available material, building simulation models were developed using TRNSYS software. The building simulation models were created by providing the thermo-physical properties of the developed SBA bricks and commercially available fly ash (FA) bricks. The simulated model was executed for annual hourly indoor air temperature against hourly outdoor ambient temperature. The temperature analysis revealed that the simulated model house constructed with FA bricks was 13% cooler than the ambient temperature, whereas the simulated model house constructed with SBA bricks was 22% and 10% cooler than the ambient temperature and the FA brick model, respectively. The obtained results prove that the developed SBA brick is a novel thermally insulated masonry construction material as compared with the commercially available masonry product.