Suitability of Lagenaria breviflora Rind filled plaster of Paris ceilings for building design

Plaster of Paris (POP) has choice preference over other ceiling materials. However, reliance on it cannot guarantee low-cost housing development nowadays due to incessant rise in its price. Also, Lagenaria breviflora rind is usually produced in large quantity as waste and prevalently disposed of by indiscriminate dumping or burning, a practice that poses a serious threat to the environment. Thus, this study was designed to assess the feasibility of solving the above identified problems by utilising Lagenaria breviflora rind particle (LRP) as filler for development of cost-effective and thermally-safe composite plaster of Paris (POP) ceilings for building design. Using hand lay-up technique, samples in which the LRP was used to replace POP at various volumetric levels (0, 10, 16.5, 20, and 28.5 %) were fabricated in triplicates per formulation. After they had been sun-dried completely, their thermophysical and mechanical properties were investigated experimentally. The results showed changes in the samples’ water absorption (24.13 – 34.99) %, bulk density (1.224 – 0.933) x 10 3 kgm-3, thermal conductivity (0.2746 – 0.2007) Wm-1K-1, specific heat capacity (1.407 – 2.246) x 103 Jkg-1K-1, thermal diffusivity (1.594 – 0.958) x 10-8 m2s-1, abrasion (0.953 – 1.341) %, and flexural strength (2.749 – 1.311) N/mm2 as proportion of the LRP in them increased. It was also noticed that thermal insulation tendency of the samples improved with increasing fractions of the LRP used. Comparatively, the samples exhibited better performance ability than conventional ceilings like Isorel and asbestos, thus portraying LRP to be a promising modifier for POP ceiling. Hence, in addition to solving the disposal problem, recycling the Lagenaria breviflora rind as described in this research could ensure availability of inexpensive and thermally-safe POP ceilings for building design.