Rheology of Clay and Clay Housing in Bensmim

Developing ecofriendly houses using local, low embodied energy construction materials such as clay represents an essential step towards making houses more cost and energy efficient. Ifrane region, and particularly Bensmim counts many low to medium income families that cannot afford high heating bills. This project aims at contributing to the development of the building sector in this region by increasing its energy efficiency through using clay bricks as a main construction material. For this purpose, a series of experimental studies were performed.The first step in this study is based on rheological testing, which allow to first understand the behavior of the clay used. The purpose of the rheological study is not only to understand the behavior of our clay, but also to compare it with three types of clay from different sites (Bab Mansour and ExtraBric manufactory). The effects of addition of wood ash and olive pomace ash to clays from the three sites at various concentrations 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 40% were investigated. The purpose of this work is to study the properties of the bricks and to determine a new way of recycling of the wood ash and the olive pomace ash. The major property that will be covered is the compressive strength.