Abstract:
Housing is universally accepted as a basic human need. Demand and cost of
construction materials have drastically increased with the growth of population in
Sri Lanka. In order to address this issue, attention has been focused on low-cost
housing materials in this study. Accordingly, this research is focused on use of
cement-sand admixtures to produce high strength soil bricks.
Lateritic soil and ordinary Portland cement were used for this study. Soil bricks
were produced by increasing the cement compositions upto 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% of
the total volume, and compacted to 33.33% and 44.44%, while applying 5kN force,
and allowed for curing for 28 days. Average compressive strength of 5% cement soil
bricks under above compaction ratios were 1.3MPa and 1.9MPa which is less than
the standard limits of 2.8MPa stated in SLS 1382:2009, and it was 3.0MPa and
3.6MPa for 10% cement. However, the mixtures w i t h 15% and 20% cement exceeded
the required strength. The wet compressive strength of said brick was 2.6MPa and it
was greater than the standard limits. The findings of this study confirmed that the
decrease in particle size of the soil and the increase of compaction ratios increases
the compressive strength of bricks. Therefore, a soil brick made with 10% cement,
compressed to 33.33% is more appropriate for the low cost housing projects.
Citation:
Amodya, A.K.C., Mayadunna, D.M., Tharuka, Y.A.S., Dissanayake, D.M.D.O.K., & Vijitha, A.V.P. (2018). Use of cement sand admixtures to produce high strength soil bricks for low cost housing projects. In A.M.K.B. Abeysinghe & G.V.I. Samaradivakara (Eds.), Proceedings of International Symposium on Earth Resources Management & Environment 2018 (pp. 179-188). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa.