Papercrete : A Lightweight Concrete

Yogesh D. Shermale Dr. M. B. Varma

PG student Associate Professor
Govt. College of Engineering, Govt. College of Engineering,
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India
email-yd.shermale@gmail.com

Abstract: The majority of abandoned waste paper accumulating from the countries all over the world causes
certain serious environmental problems. The high volume of concrete offers a complete solution to the problem
of meeting the increasing demands for concrete in the future in a sustainable manner and at a reduced cost. At the
same time, it is necessary to reduce the environmental impact of industries that are vital to economic development.
Papercrete is a new construction material made most often with waste paper, cement and water. People have been
using Papercrete to build low cost homes without a clear understanding of its structural properties. The purpose
of this study is to obtain some mechanical and physical parameters of papercrete by doing some trial mixes of
papercrete with different material. This research identified acceptable property ranges necessary for using a
structural papercrete facility and recorded compressive strength that were too weak to build an economical
structure. The identification of a hybrid papercrete-concrete structure produced results and economics within
acceptable ranges. From this study it is observed that papercrete is a ductile material that can sustain large
deformations than normal concrete.
Keywords- ductile material, papercrete, wastepaper, mechanical properties.

1. Introduction walls in high- rise buildings in seismically active

These days CO2 emission which made from
construction sites because of cement using is big issue
for all the countries. On the other hand, peoples desire
to live eco-environment is continuously increasing. In
order to resolve these kinds of matters, this study
carried out. Papercrete is a new composite material
using waste paper. By using the waste paper,
papercrete is not only reducing the amount of cement
using but also making environmentally friendly
building materials.[6]
Papercrete is a material originally developed
80 years ago but it is only recently rediscovered.
Papercrete is a fibrous cementitious compound
comprising waste paper and Portland cement. These
two components are blended with water to create a
paper cement pulp, which can then be poured into a 1.
mould, allowed to dry and be utilized as a durable
building material. It should be noted that papercrete is
a relatively new concept with limited scope.[1]
Papercrete can be an environment friendly
solution to the need of affordable housing. In
papercrete construction, the mortar, exterior stucco,
and interior plaster can be made with the same paper
material so much of wood and other construction
materials used in framing can be saved.
Papercrete has good sound absorption
characteristics. Papercrete made with certain mixes
are resistant to fire, fungi, and pests of all kinds.
Papercrete blocks made with a sufficient quantity of
Portland cement and sand are fire retardant.
Papercrete blocks can be easily made fireproof by
coating them with a solution of boric acid and borax.
By using a concrete sealer the papercrete blocks can
be made waterproof.
Papercrete is also known for its light weight
and because of this property it can be used for interior
areas. Using it in place of concrete could reduce the
gauge of steel framework and the depth of foundations
required, thus significantly decreasing the amounts of
labor and energy expenses.
Objective:
1. To study, analyze and determine whether or
not subjective evidence is accurate.
2. To determine a working Youngs modulus
(E) of various samples in order to choose the
mixture that has the highest stiffness and
lowest deformation.
3. Establish whether or not Papercrete can be
used as a construction material for building
low cost homes.
2. Literature Review
Tonks et al (2004) conducted an experiment
on buildings constructed by utilizing discarded
telephone books. The researchers believed that these
are viable and in fact this method conformed to the
requirements of the Newzeland Building Act. They
also suggested that the construction process is labour-
intensive, rather than skill-based, but care is needed
when selecting the volumes and placing them into
position. Services, power and communication can be
accommodated within the walls, while it is preferable
to run wet services within the slab. This construction
method is analogous to both earth and straw buildings
and in a similar manner is suited to the do it yourself
building owner / constructor.[2]
Fuller et al (2006) formulated that for
decades intrepid environmentalist have been building
homes and other structures with materials that recycle
waste paper into an alternative construction material
made with cement and other ingredients. They
claimed that these Papercrete structures are strong
and good at durable and insulating. But they had no b) Cement
research to backup their claims until now. They were c) Sand
cast into seventeen group of papercrete mix
proportions. The parameters that he studied are the The papers which were collected could not be used
Youngs Modulus (E), thermal conductivity (K), directly. Before mixing with other ingredients, papers
thermal resistance (R), bond characteristics, and creep were converted into slurry form, known as pulp. First
behavior. The Stress vs. Strain graphs suggests that, the pins, threads and other materials were removed.
papercrete is a ductile material that can sustain large Then the papers were torn into small pieces and all the
deformations. Cement plays an important role in the torn pieces of paper were immersed in water (Figure
compressive strength and behavior. Specimens with 1). The papers were kept in water for 1 day (24 hours),
higher proportion of cement exhibit larger Youngs and they soon degraded into a paste like form.
Modulus.[1]
Titzman et al. made papercrete cylinder and
then test for strengths, thermal conductivity, and other
physical properties and these results were compared
with those of conventional building materials. This
research identified acceptable property ranges
necessary for using a structural papercrete facility and
recorded compressive and tensile strengths that were
too weak to build an economical structure. The
identification of a hybrid papercrete-concrete
structure produced results and economics within
acceptable ranges. The papercrete-concrete
alternative was tested on the same basis as the
papercrete for structural and economic analysis, which Figure 1 Soaking of Wastepaper
provided acceptable results. The results indicate that a
papercrete-concrete structure is a viable alternative After that period, the papers were taken out
structurally and economically within a range of sizes from water tank and shredded into little pieces. Using
for the structure.[5] the small flavor machine, the shredded papers were
Ritzawaty binti Mohamad et al. prepared converted into pulp. The generated paper pulp is
Concrete mixes containing various contents of the shown in Figure 2. The paper pulp had residual water
paper and basic strength characteristics such as in itself, and it was not good enough for mixing the
compressive strength, splitting tensile, flexural, and ingredients. So the required amount of water was
water absorption were determined and compared with added at the time of mixing.
a control mix. Four concrete mixes containing of the
waste, which are control mix, 5%, 10%, 15% as an
additional materials to concrete were prepared with
ratios of 1:2:3 by weight of cement, sand, and
aggregate respectively. The maximum size of
aggregate was 20mm..[4]
Issac Akunwani et al. determining the
density, water absorption capacity, compressive
strength and fire resistance of papercrete produced
using waste newspaper and office paper in order to
ascertain their suitability for use as a building
construction material. For each of the mix proportions
considered, the bulk density, water absorption,
compressive strength and fire resistance of papercrete Figure 2 Paper Pulp
made with newspaper were found to be higher than
those made with office paper. The water absorption Casting of Specimen for Papercrete Cubes:
and fire resistance of papercrete were found to be high After paper pulp was generated, first dry
and increased with increasing waste paper content ingredients were taken out on the weight basis and all
while the bulk density and compressive strength of the dry mixes were mixed uniformly (Figure 3). Then,
papercrete were low and decreased with increasing these dry mixes were sprinkled over the required
waste paper content.[3] amount of paper pulp and mixed uniform manually.

3. Materials and Preparation of Papercrete Cube

Materials used in Papercrete
a) Waste Paper
 Table 1 Mix Proportion for Papercrete
Grou Mix
Material Proportion
p no.
1 Paper/Cement 1-1
A 2 Paper/ Cement 1-2
3 Paper/Cement 1-3
4 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-5
B 5 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-3
6 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-2

Figure 3 Mixing of Papercrete Ingredient

After mixing, the mixes were placed in the mold of
size 10x10x10 cm And the hand compaction was done
for proper compaction of the papercrete. Before
mixing, the mold was ready for casting the cube
specimen. Machine oil was applied to the inner
surfaces of mold for easy removing of mold and
without causing any damage to the specimen.
4. Testing, Result and Discussion
4.1 Experimental Setup of Compressive test
In this test an increasing uniaxial
compressive load was applied at constant speed,
uniformly distributed in order to develop the stress vs.
strain curve and determine the stiffness of the
material. The following testing procedure was used
for the compression test:[1]
1. Two aluminum plates were used to distribute
uniformly the load given by the machine to
the sample.
2. Failure was defined by deformation criteria
rather than load because the compressive
force magnitude does not drop. The material
is not brittle, and it does not exhibit
descending branch in the stress-strain curve.

Figure 4 Papercrete Mold

Papercrete fibrous mix was poured into the mold by

three layers and fully compacted manually. Casting
was completed after 24 hours, the mold was removed
carefully from the specimen (Figure ). After 28 days
of air drying, the specimens was ready to test.

Figure 5 Papercrete Cubes

Figure 6 Papercrete Cube After Testing
By adopting above steps the Papercrete cubes were
made with different materials, material proportions
are given in Table 1
 40 Deformations (or the stress vs. strain graph as the area
35 is same) . The stiffness or elastic modulus of the
30 material (E) is the slope of the Stress vs. Strain graph.
25 A trend line was applied using Microsoft Excel in
20 order to get the right value of the slope of the curve
Load (kN)
(Figure 7). Note that the material is non-linear, and as
15
a result there is no Elastic (Youngs) Modulus. A
10
working Youngs Modulus is an approximate value
5 obtained from the stress-strain curves, and which can
0 be used as an index to characterize the compressive
0 20 40 60
behavior up to some stress. In practice, the allowable
Deformation (mm)
compressive stress is expected to be at about this level.
The softer part of the curve (Figure 7), is probably due
Figure 7 Load vs. Deformation Curve to irregularities of the surfaces of the specimens. One
example of Load vs. Deformation graph is given i.e.
4.2 Result and Discussion Figure 7 all other data calculated from respective
a. Compressive Strength graphs. The values of working Young modulus,
The data collected from the compression ultimate strength and deformation are shown in Table
tests were used to develop graph for Load vs. 2.

Table 2 Data Collected From Testing

Weight of sample(gm) Ave. Elastic Elastic Average
Mix Propo Mass
Material Modulus Modulus Strength
no. rtion 1 2 Density 1 2 (MPa)
1 Paper/Cement 1-1 372 495 0.433 1.664 0.267 1.9
2 Paper/ Cement 1-2 613 615 0.614 2.475 0.14 2.34
3 Paper/Cement 1-3 772 814 0.793 3.73 0.176 2.52
4 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-5 1108 1127 1.117 2.24 0.383 3.53
5 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-3 910 918 0.914 1.88 0.344 3.3
6 Paper/ Cement/Sand 1-1-2 770 787 0.778 1.962 0.286 2.5

Specimens with higher proportion of cement

From the first three mixes of above table we
can see that as the cement proportion
increased the Young's modulus as well as
compressive strength of Papercrete increased
and vice versa and when sand is used in the
papercrete the Young's Modulus decreased.
b. Weight and Density
From the table 2 we can see that as
the cement and sand content increased the
density of the papercrete increased and as the
content of the cement and sand decreased the
density decreased. The cube made from
papercrete are much lighter than the normal
concrete cube.
5. CONCLUSION
1. During the compression test, the stress-strain
curve is monotonically increasing and the
sample starts packing rather than
disintegrating. For that reason, deformation
is the criterion for failure. The Stress vs.
Strain graphs suggest that, papercrete is a
ductile material that can sustain large
deformations (Figure 7).
2. Cement plays an important role in the
compressive strength and behavior.
exhibit larger Youngs Modulus.
3. As pointed out, the stress-strain curves
exhibit a softer segment at the beginning
(Figure 7). This is probably because of the
inherent irregularities of the specimens due
to shrinkage.
4. In each group of concrete mixes containing
wastepaper, compressive strength of
concrete decreased with the increase of the
amount of wastepaper.
5. The low bulk density of papercrete indicates
that they are lightweight and can be used in
the form of either hollow or solid blocks for
making walls of buildings, especially, high-
rise buildings. This property also makes
papercrete good for building arches and
domes.
6. Good relationship was observed between
density and strength of concrete mixes
containing wastepaper i.e. as the density
increases the strength also increases and
vice-versa.
7. The results suggested that papercrete if
properly mixed and applied, can be used as a
great environment friendly construction
material. Further research in this may shed
 light on wide applications of papercrete
material.

References
1) Fuller, Fafitis, and Santamaria J. " Structural
properties of a new material made of waste
paper" Building Integration Solutions (AEI)
2006, pp 1-16.
2) G M Tonks "Dial a House; - The
Construction of Residential Buildings From
Used Telephone Directories " International
Conference on Sustainability Engineering
and Science Conference, 7-9 July 2004,
Auckland New Zealand.
3) Isaac I. Akinwumi, Olasunkanmi M.
Olatunbosun, Oluwarotimi M. Olofinnade,
Paul O. Awoyera " Structural Evaluation Of
Lightweight Concrete Produced Using
Waste Newspaper And Office Paper " Civil
And Environmental Research, ISSN 2224-
5790 (paper) ISSN 2225-0514 (online)
Vol.6, no.7, 2014, pp 160-168
4) Ritzawaty binti mohamad shukeri and a.
Naser abdul ghani " concrete mix with
wastepaper " 2nd international conference on
built environment in developing countries
(ICBEDC 2008), pp 567-575.
5) Titzman L.C., Analysis of Low Cost
Building Material for the Mix Alco Process
Texas A & M University, 2006.
6) Yun H., Jung H., Choi C., Mechanical
Properties of Papercrete Containing Waste
Paper, Architectural Institute of Korea,
2007.