POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES

As the effects of Global Warming become more and more evident, the call

for using greener materials are now becoming more extensive. Many industries are

now taking action, especially the AEC Sector, since its most consumed material is

among the top contributors of carbon emission because of its cement content. This

chapter discusses studies and works of literature that tackles how the construction

industry responded in that increasing need to reduce cement use, and how GFRG

can be among the best solution for the said problem, especially in the Philippines.

The Environmental Impact of Concrete

Human activities have contributed significantly to climate change by adding

more carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere and

consequently disturbing the natural processes. Directly linked to this increase in

carbon-emission is the energy consumption of materials, also called embodied

energy. According to the book ‘Sustainability of Construction Materials,' the

embodied energy refers to all the energy spent throughout the lifetime of a material

(Lushnikova & Dvorkin). The three major economic sectors that contribute to the

world energy consumption are i) buildings, ii) transportation, and iii) industrial.

According to an article from ‘Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change,’ buildings

amount for about one-third of the total energy consumption (Mardiana & Rifatt,

2015). The rate of building energy consumption in developing countries, like the

Philippines, is also predicted to increase as the nations keep improving their

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standard of living and quality of life. Creating more sustainable energy consumption

patterns and realizing the low-carbon economic development will help in finding new

strategies and approaches for the overall energy reduction. Further improvements

in environmental and energy management can be made with a firm procedure to

cover various materials, labor input, equipment, and operational cost.

Though the science of concrete is yet to be completely understood, one thing

is for sure: the material’s increasing environmental impact. According to a research

article, the production of 1-tonne concrete produces CO2 of the same mass, as a

rule of a thumb (Crow, 2008). Modern cement kilns, however, are now more efficient,

and produce about 800kg of CO2 per tonne – still huge, considering the amount of

concrete being consumed all around the globe, since the construction industry widely

used concrete because of its reliability and versatility. The main culprit for this high

carbon emission is cement.

Crow suggested several ways to lower the carbon emission from concrete.

One is to produce ultra-strong varieties of concrete to lessen the amount of concrete

required to do the same job. Another possible solution is to create a material that

can either partially or entirely replace concrete or cement.

Concrete Hollow Block Substitutes

To create structures of colossal dimensions, a material that can support the

mass of these superstructures is needed, and none has ever responded much better

than concrete, both because of its strength and cost effectivity. According to an

article in ScienceABC, concrete's high compressive strength, which is the ability to

withstand enormous amounts of weight, supports the massive structures (Asish,

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2018, para 1). Its outstanding compressive strength is associated with its

components: aggregates and cement. Nevertheless, concrete is brittle because of

its low tensile strength, which is why steel reinforcement is needed.

The call for decreasing the consumption of concrete is not new, and many

had already attempted to find a replacement for various reasons. Since concrete

itself already have remarkable properties, finding a substitute which can perform just

as good, if not better, had been very challenging, may it be replacing some of its

components or replacing the whole material itself. Among the many attempts is the

incorporation of plastic bottles in CHBs. Plastic, as we know it, had been causing

havoc in the environment because of its non-biodegradable property. Since the

construction of new structures never ceases, the possibility of putting it into CHB can

be an ingenious way of discarding them. It turns out, though, that plastic reduces the

strength of CHB, with a difference of 57% from the original compressive strength of

the material (Safinia & Alkalbani, 2016).

Another attempt in finding new ways to recycle materials is the use of

recycled coarse aggregates and recycled water. Recycled aggregate comes from

concrete wastes, while recycled water comes from wastewater treatment plants. The

findings were still unsatisfactory, for the CHBs made from recycled materials were

20% weaker in terms of axial strength after 7-day curing. Furthermore, when they

tried to replace cement too (with micro-silica), its axial strength became even lower,

this time by about 52% for 70% replacement of cement (Elgaali & Elchalakani, 2016).

Other researchers tried to replace cement too. Patil et al. analyzed fly ash as a partial

replacement and found out that an increase in fly ash content resulted in higher
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workability and durability. However, just like the other attempts, the compressive

strength of CHB was reduced (2018).

Still, not all attempts for finding adequate substitute materials were futile. The

use of waste coconut shells as partial aggregate replacement resulted in a higher

compressive strength for the CHB, while also posting positive results in terms of

thermal conductivity, fire-resistance and water absorption (Ganiron et al., 2017).

Another successful attempt of introducing a replacement is the use of sea sand

instead of river sand, which increased the density of CHB and also improved the

compressive strength of the material (Palcis, 2015). Thus, we can assume that there

are still materials that can serve as a substitute for concrete or its current

components.

Gypsum and Glass as Building Materials

According to the book ‘Sustainability of Construction Materials,’ gypsum is

known for being an eco-friendly material, and still among the most common mineral

binders (Lushnikova & Dvorkin, 2016). Its calcination process requires lower

temperature compared to cement, making it more energy-efficient, and at the same

time produces less carbon footprint. It has many promising properties like being fire-

resistant, sound-proof, and non-toxic. Still, it has drawbacks like low resistance to

water. The book further discussed its different uses: binder, concrete, wall blocks,

boards, panels, and decorative elements. Gypsum is also infinitely recyclable.

The same book discussed the reliability of glass as a building material. Glass

is a wide-application material used in almost all kind of industry. In the construction

industry, glass is an essential material for making windows, but its many positive
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qualities raise the interest of exploring other possible function as a building material

(Achintha, 2016). Similar to gypsum, glass is very environmentally friendly, and is a

favorite material for constructing low carbon, energy-efficient buildings.

Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum

Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum is a material made from gypsum plaster

reinforced with chopped glass fibers. GFRG is commonly used for interior design,

but are mainly used as panels for load-bearing walls, partition infill walls, mass

housing and multistoried buildings (Prasad, 2017), thus its other name, Rapidwall.

According to Y.-F. Wu, who was among the pioneer researchers to write scholarly

works regarding GFRG, Rapidwalls were developed as early as 1990 in Australia

and then adopted afterward by other countries like China and India (2009). Wu’s

works provided the groundwork for most of the succeeding researches about the

material, wherein she studied the different physical and mechanical properties of

GFRG, as well as its behavior to various loadings. Found in her works are the

dimensions of GFRG Panels, as well as its different advantages like smaller

embodied energy and CO2 emission from its manufacturing up to the construction

of the structure.

In 2013, Wu’s studies paved the way for the creation of the first manual that

served as a guideline for construction methodology using Rapidwalls,

“GFRG/Rapidwall Building Structural Design Manual.” It was the result of the

collaborative efforts of the Structural Engineering Division Department of Civil

Engineering of IIT Madras and the Building Materials & Technology Promotional

Council Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (BMTPC) of the Indian
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Government. India, in particular, had been very active in exploring the usage of

Rapidwalls to accommodate their increasing demand for housing, since India’s mass

housing had been reliant to energy-intensive materials like bricks, cement, and steel

(Menon et al., 2016). Thus, the manual was a breakthrough for the advancement of

research about the material. It set the way for the use of GFRG panels in the

construction industry, for it served as a basis for multiple companies in producing

houses with this methodology.

Using GFRG panels provide many benefits, including a decrease in dead

load, no plastering required, faster construction, less workforce, durable, eco-

friendly, and less built-up area (Anam, 2018). When it comes to construction

management aspects, houses using GFRG was found to be 15% cheaper and 42%

faster to construct (Chandran et al., 2018). Still, GFRG has its weaknesses, like its

thermal conductivity, which performs just like the traditional method (ElSaeed, 2016).

Thus, further studies were being made to continue to improve GFRG as a structural

material. Among these improvements were ElSaeed’s effort to improve the thermal

comfort performance of GFRG by using nanotechnology, and Liu and Ying proposed

modifications in the size of GFRG panels to make it adequate for small high-rise

residential buildings (2010). Other problems are still waiting to be addressed, like the

design limitations due to the standard size of GFRG panels.

Gypsum in the Philippines

Dubbed as one of the most mineralized countries in the world, The

Philippines has an untapped mineral wealth worth of more than $840 Billion,

according to Business Inquirer (Esplanada, 2012), and among these minerals is

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gypsum. Located in some parts of Batangas, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte,

Albay, and Negros Oriental provinces are large deposits of the said mineral. Gypsum

is well-known as a material in different industries because of its versatility. Examples

of its uses include the production of paint and cement, manufacturing of wallboard,

soil conditioner and fertilizer, in making surgical and orthopedic casts, and in making

toothpaste, shampoo and hair products. In the construction industry, gypsum is used

to produce boards and plasters (Gornal, 2014).

Gypsum board is now becoming more widely used in the field of construction

in the country. Indicative of that is the Standard Specification for this material

published by the Department of Public Works and Highways or DPWH in 2015. It

provides guidelines for the safe production and installation of gypsum boards. Also,

the number of companies producing gypsum products is increasing. An article in

Business Mirror said that Knauf, a German company which is one of the leading

manufacturers of gypsum-based plasterboard across the globe, is interested in

investing $50 million to set up a new plant in the Philippines (Pillas, 2017).

Still, not many scholarly works exist in the Philippines regarding gypsum’s

potential as a construction material. Moreover, GFRG is even less popular, which is

used only for interior finishes and architectural elements.

Synthesis

Many studies have focused on finding ways to minimize the environmental

impact of concrete by continually improving its strength or by exploring new materials

as a cement substitute. However, not many studies were made to investigate the

potential of GFRG panels as a concrete replacement. Moreover, even with the

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numerous studies and literature about GFRG written in the past decades, none has

ever attempted to test the possibility of condensing the material into hollow blocks.

In the Philippines, studies about gypsum as a building material is very few. Thus,

this study aims to explore the limits of the potential of GFRG by condensing it into

CHB.