Development and assessment of performance, fire safety, and sustainability of wood-clay materials for construction of housing in Africa

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The intended outcome of the research is to expand the market of Canadian wood, by designing a novel building material made of cob, a subsoil building material mixed with water and organic fibre, and wood for use in developing countries. The project will address the housing deficit in Africa and benefit those that would not normally have access to engineering research. The six specific objectives are 1) to formulate a mixture of clay with plant fibres for construction in order to measure thermal and hygrometric properties, 2) to measure the migration of disodium octaborate (DOT) used in the wood treatment into the clay, 3) to evaluate the fire performance of fir-clay materials on a beam and on a prototype of a wood-clay small wall, 4) to perform hydrothermal modelling on the envelope of wood-clay buildings, 5) to conduct sustainability analyses to highlight the conditions that make this choice of construction beneficial and ecological in the context of sustainable development, and 6) to disseminate the results to those needing social housing in Africa. At ETS, two PhDs and one Master student will complete objectives 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. Objective 3 will be the responsibility of one Master student at York University who will also contribute to objective 6. This new tradeline for Canadian wood has great potential to increase wood sales and the market share of Canadian wood in Africa.