Shrinkage of natural plastering for straw buildings affected by reinforcement and drying [electronic resource].

Includes references.

This study was carried out to determine the shrinkage percentage of natural plaster materials consisted of soil, sand and different fibres. The experiments were carried out at the Institute of Production Engineering and Buildings Research, Federal Agricultural Research Center (FAL), Braunschweig, Germany in summer 2007. Straw was used as a reinforcement fiber for plaster and three types of fibers. The plaster materials were put under drying temperatures of 30, 50 and 70 °C. The results revealed that the highest shrinkage was for plaster reinforced by wood shaving fibres, while the lowest shrinkage was for plaster reinforced by barley straw fibres for treatments A, B and C. Also, the plaster without reinforcement fibres had a lot of cracks and problems that cause plaster destroyed. The reinforcement fiber has greater effect on the drying shrinkage than sand. The study recommends using the plaster with 30 °C drying temperature with a quantity of straw for improving the plaster materials to decrease the shrinkage and cracks.

Summary in Arabic.

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