Welcome to the group md!
No matter how much you read about papercrete there isn't a substitute
for mixing up a sample is there?
What are you planning as a compression testing method?
Keep in mind that papercrete will have some give to it. It is a wood
product after all. Measuring the compressive deflection as a
function of compressive load would probably best characterize the
load carrying properties.
Failure testing is also informative, but most papercrete mixes don't
seem to fail catastrophically like typical concrete. In many ways it
acts like a sponge. You can squish the heck out of it and it will
bounce back.
I'd love to see what papercrete structure would do on a shake table
earthquake simulator. It might perform magnificently.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "mdumiller" <mdmiller1@...>
wrote:
>
>
> I am an architect, and I just had to try to make a batch of this
> stuff. I have a few stats I'll share that might help someone else,
> since I wasn't sure what I was getting into.
>
> Measured out 90 grams of paper and 15 grams each of portland, lime,
> clay, and a calcium carbonate/silicate mix I had (couldn't find my
> bag of sand). Tossed in 5 grams each of borax and burnt umber (for
> color - burnt umber is mostly clay). This is based (loosely) on
the
> recipe from Robert Merrill. I pureed the paper in the blender in a
> couple of batches, set into a colander to strain for awhile, then
> mixed everything together. What amazed me was the amount of water
> this took even after draining the puree in the colander. Here's
the
> numbers:
> 160 grams of dry materials - Total dry weight 160 grams
> 1100 grams of water (after draining paper puree)
> which created: a block 3.5" X 4" X 5" Total wet weight 1260
grams.
>
> Thus a cubic foot of this material is 8.7 lbs when zero moisture.
> Assuming the moisture content gets down eventually to 8% or less by
> volume, then a cubic foot of this stuff should be about 14-15 lbs.
> (based on a cubic foot of water being about 64 pounds, so 8% would
> add 1/8 X 64, about 5 pounds of moisture - that seems like a lot
for
> some reason...)
> ...my conclusion, is, that this material looks pretty incredible --
> and I like the burnt umber color, looks kind of like a chunk of
> Hershey's chocolate.
> I'll be tracking the weight periodically over the next week as the
> block dries. Can't wait to put some compression loads on some
> samples.
> thanks to all for their freely sharing of info on this group.
>
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