Rice husk ash reduces damage rate of CEB under uniaxial compression

To address the current environmental challenges of reducing atmospheric pollutants and contributing to recycling, this work reuses waste residues from the agroindustrial sector for manufacturing compressed earth blocks (CEBs). The main objective of this study is to evaluate rice husk ash (RHA) stabilizer as damage rate reducer in CEBs under uniaxial compressive loads. The methodology includes the fabrication of cylindrical samples of CEB densified at a pressure of 10 MPa using a laboratory compactor. The samples are tested in uniaxial compressive loadings using a universal testing machine to produce failure. The CEB samples without RHA are compared to the samples showing maximum strength manufactured with RHA. The experimental engineering stress-strain curves were analyzed to determine the damage rate as a function of strain. The results show that incorporating RHA as a stabilizer reduces the damage rate of compressed earth blocks (CEB) under uniaxial compression from 3.04 to 0.36, representing an 88% reduction.