Stabilised compacted earth block for affordable housing

摘要

This paper investigates the possibility of using locally available materials such as soil, sand, grits, jute, etc and blending them appropriately for making compacted earth block for construction of affordable residential buildings. The local soil in and around Jalpaiguri town of West Bengal was mixed with the local sand from River Panga, and other stone grits to make a composite soil of gravel 15 percent, Sand 50 percent, Silt 15 percent and Clay 20 percent, for compacted stabilised earth blocks (CSEB) Blocks of 254 mm x 127 mm x 76 mm size, were prepared by blending the soil with Ordinary Portland Cement (5.0 percent, 7.5 percent, and 10.0 percent) jute fibre of different sizes (1 cm, 2.5 cm and 5.0 cm) and compacting manually to the standard proctor density. They were cured and tested for compressive strength, water absorption as well as density. Based on the results, it has been concluded that the compacted cement stabilized earth blocks both with or without jute fibre are an alternative to the burnt clay bricks in lightly loaded building (rural areas) where stability is not a governing factor.