Abstract
Unfired admixed soil blocks are composed of standard soil and a stabilizer or reinforcement material in the form of binder and fiber. This literature review systematically examines the performance characteristics of unfired admixed soil blocks made by using binders such as cement, lime, and other agricultural and industrial wastes available in the form of fibers and ash. A systematic search was carried out on Web of Science and SCOPUS using different keywords, and 313 records were found. After the screening and eligibility process as per PRISMA guidelines, 36 papers were eligible and hence selected to be reviewed and analyzed. This paper examines the performance characteristics of the blocks in terms of physical properties, mechanical properties, durability, microstructural evaluation, statistical analysis, cost analysis, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emission. It was found that of the total 9 parameters considered for discussion, most of the studies using different admixtures (binder and fibers) in soil blocks were focused on compressive strength testing of blocks, water absorption, and durability by wetting drying cycles. However, other parameters like bulk density, maximum dry density and optimum water content, thermal conductivity, tensile strength, and flexural strength examined in recent studies are also reported in this paper. This systematic review proposes some research problems to be worked on various additional parameters like linear shrinkage, pull out test, erosion test, sorptivity test, porosity, efflorescence, water permeability, freeze/thaw test, and analysis of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing of unfired admixed soil blocks using various binders and fibers for further study which the current literature lacks.
Highlights
Soil blocks are the building units that are manufactured by adding optimum water content to the soil of desired quality for achieving maximum density and compressing it using a suitable block-making machine
Right from ancient times human civilization cannot be deliberated without soil usage, even in the modern era too. e present attempt focused on the formation of compressed earth blocks, using a variety of admixtures and fibers. e compressive and tensile strength is a measure of the ability of earth blocks to be used in the construction of load-bearing structures
The study concluded that there is a clear indication towards the beneficial effects of fiber inclusion on the thermal performance of stabilized blocks, and future research needs to concentrate on this aspect for better understanding and certainty. e specific finds of the study are detailed as under. e conclusions of this study are the following: (i) e compressive strength, water absorption, and wetting/drying cycle method of durability tests were among the most frequently conducted tests in the articles under review
Summary
Soil blocks are the building units that are manufactured by adding optimum water content to the soil of desired quality for achieving maximum density and compressing it using a suitable block-making machine. E phases of conducting systematic review are identification of articles, screening of articles as per criteria established, eligibility according to the content of the articles, and inclusion of final articles for the analysis. E different keywords that were used for searching the relevant articles were “Soil blocks,” “Compressed Earth bricks,” “Compressed stabilized soil block,” “Earth bricks,” “Unburnt soil bricks,” and “Compressed soil blocks.” ese specific keywords searching presented 313 papers that were sent to the screening process. E identification process was followed by the screening process to select the relevant articles according to the theme E research articles selected for review were focused on the performance characteristics of soil blocks.
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