STUDIES ON STABILIZED MUD BLOCK AS A CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL

Abstract

Soil as a building material is available in most areas of the world. In developing countries, earth construction is economically the most efficient means for house construction with the least demand of resources. Investigation is carried out to find the suitable proportion of locally available materials such as soil, coir, straw etc. with cement as stabilizers for improving the strength of locally available mud blocks and thus to provide affordable housing. Using soil (from areas of Neriamangalam) and stabilizers (cement, lime, straw fibre, coir fibre, plastic fibre), eleven different types of samples were prepared. Tests were conducted on these samples in order to evaluate their performance such as compressive strength and total water absorption on which the durability of the blocks depend. The investigation has revealed that, out of all block samples, blocks which are produced from10% cement (C10), 10% cement with 3% coir fibre (C10C) and 10% cement with 3% plastic fibre (C10P) have compressive strength and total water absorption values above the recommended minimum values for structural work. (IS 1725:1992)