Stabilization of CSEBs with the addition of industrial and agricultural wastes

Abstract

In today’s world, most of the developing countries are trying to build houses with more durability and with low cost. Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks are the best option for building cost-effective and sustainable houses. In red bricks, cement is used as a binder but in CSEBs, there is no requirement of cement. A large amount of pollution is generated during the manufacturing of cement as well as in the construction of red burnt bricks. To overcome this situation, CSEBs are used. Waste materials like fly ash, bagasse ash, rice straw etc, can be used for the construction of compressed earth blocks. The use of industrial and agricultural wastes as binders and fibres in place of cement for the construction of CSEBs can reduce the pollution caused by cement production as well as will lessen the construction cost. In this study, agricultural waste like rice straw and industrial wastes like bagasse ash and marble dust are used for the preparation of CSEBs. Rice straw acts as a fibre and marble dust acts as a binder for CSEBs. This makes these blocks economical as well as eco-friendly. This study has been done to show that CSEBs are better in strength, durability and are cost-effective than the red burnt bricks and can replace these bricks in coming future. A total of 27 combinations of percentage were taken into consideration for this study and for each combination 3 specimens were constructed. These specimens were cured in open atmosphere under the shed. And a small quantity of water was sprinkled over the specimens every day. Tests like OMC, MDD and tensile strength test were performed on these blocks after 28 days. It was noticed that tensile strength increases with rise in marble dust content. Overall, it was observed that CSEBs are better than the cement blocks as well as red burnt bricks.