Authors : M. Merzoud and M.F. Habita
Abstract: The Diss (Ampelodesmos mauritanicus, family of Poaceae) is a very luxuriant plant growing in wild state around the Mediterranean North Africa and dry areas of Greece and Spain. It grows in France, mainly, in the departments of the Alpes-Maritimes, the Var, the South of Corsica and Herault. In the past, it was used as building material because of its mechanical and hydrous qualities. The use of such a fibrous plant in a cementitious matrix leads to lightweight materials with very attractive tensile behavior that can be used as advantageous filling materials for structures subjected to seismic effects. This study is focused on the optimisation of this kind of material on the basis of mechanical properties. The basic vegetable material, very fibrous and siliceous, presents indeed an absorption of about 90% that would be corrected. Moreover, we noted a considerable retardation of setting and very low resistances during the composite tests with natural crushed diss, despite the fact that the fibres have considerable tensile strength. To improve the fibres contribution in cementitious composites, we have carried out a treatment by boiling the fibres of diss to extract the substances responsible for the bad connection between fibres and the cement paste. The results obtained are encouraging and enable to foresee a later development of this material.
M. Merzoud and M.F. Habita , 2007. Elaboration of a Lignocellulosic Composite Formulated with a Local Resource: Diss as Infill in Structures Submitted to Seismic Actions . Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 2: 410-415.