Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Agro-stone boards are made up of binding materials (MOC, MOS, MPC), fillers (mineral and
agro byproducts) and reinforced materials (fibre-glass). Different lignocellulostic cereal crop
byproducts such as rice husk and wheat straw are available in Amhara region. These
byproducts are used as filler for production
of magnesium cement board or agro-stone board.
However, their importance for agro-stone board production
is still neglected. Therefore,
research
is needed for the nature and performance of these filler based and the current bagasse
filler boards. The objective
of this study is to investigate the effect of low cost fillers on the
mechanical and physico-chemical characteristics
of agro-stone/magnesia boards. The sample
boards were produced from bagasse, rice husk and wheat straw fillers with fixed
MgCh
solution, and different proportion ofMgO and pumice. The effects of fillers, pumice and MgO
on the properties such as density, water absorption and compressive strength were examined.
The results showed that increment
of MgO concentration from the current used bagasse filler
board the density, water resistance and compressive strength were significantly increased. The
increment
of pumice concentration increased water resistivity and density whereas decreased
the compressive strength. The rice husk and wheat straw fillers showed similar performance
with the current bagasse filler on all parameters. We observed that the density, compressive
strength and water resistivity
of rice husk and wheat straw filler boards were increased by
increasing MgO and
lor pumice.
