Optimum Soil Grading for the Soil-Cement Blocks
- 1 February 2007
- journal article
- Published by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
- Vol. 19 (2), 139-148
- https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0899-1561(2007)19:2(139)
Abstract
Large numbers of soil-cement block masonry buildings exist in India and many other countries. The paper deals with an experimental study on the influence of soil grading on the characteristics of soil-cement blocks and shear-bond strength of soil-cement block masonry triplets. Influence of clay content of the soil-cement block on strength, absorption and durability characteristics, and interfacial mortar-block bond strength has been examined. Some of the major conclusions of the study are: (1) optimum clay content leading to maximum strength is in the range of 14–16%; (2) saturated water content of the blocks increases with increase in clay content of the block; (3) initial rate of absorption decreases with increase in clay content of the block; (4) weight loss after ASTM wire scratch test is minimum when the clay content of the block is about 16%; and (5) optimum clay content for the highest modulus for the blocks and for highest shear-bond strength is about 16%.Keywords
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