37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 1065INNOVATIVE MASONRY BLOCKS FOR PARTITIONWALLSG. Vasconcelos1, Elisa Poletti1, , P. Medeiros1, Paulo Mendonça2, P. Carvalho2, S. Cunha1,Aires Camões2, P. Lourenço11 ISISE, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugale-mail: graca@civil.uminho.pt2 C-TAC, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, PortugalKey words: partition walls, blocks, composite materials, experimental validationAbstractThis paper intends to propose a non structural system of partition walls with monolithicblocks based on a composite material resulting from an admixture of cork and textile fiberscombined with a non cement binder, gypsum. These blocks consist of two half blocks whichhave to be connected during laying process. The developed blocks were first tested undercompressive and flexural loading in order to derive their mechanical behaviour. Differentcuring conditions were applied to the blocks during their production in order to evaluate theeffect on eth behaviour. The variables analyzed included curing temperature and period ofcuring, ambient humidity in which the blocks were prepared. This study aims at obtaininginsight on the influence of these parameters on the mechanical behaviour of the blocks and atproviding guidelines for their use in construction sites.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 375