Lateritic soil based-compressed earth bricks stabilized with phosphate binder

Abstract

This work aimed to investigate the possibility of using binder obtained from calcined laterite and phosphoric acid as a novel stabilizing for the manufacturing of compressed earth bricks (CEB). Various proportions of binder from up to 20 wt% were used to stabilize the soils. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) thermal analysis (TGA-DSC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), water absorption and compressive strength tests were used to characterize the obtained products. The results showed that CEBs developed are highly resistant (similar to concrete) with dry compressive strength ranging from 17 MPa to 38 MPa and wet compressive strength from 6.3 MPa to 16.9 MPa. All the CEBs are also water-resistant and the water absorption was between 9.36-14.18 %. The increase of the binder content improves the performance of the compressed earth bricks. The new binder developed, which is based on the ferro-silico-aluminophosphate network, is effective for the stabilization of the lateritic soil for producing compressed earth bricks.