IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 __________________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 03 Special Issue: 06 | May-2014 | RRDCE - 2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 259 STUDIES ON STABILISED ADOBE BLOCKS Bharath B 1 , Maheshwar Reddy L 2 , Juberahmed Pathan 3 , Rahul R Patel 4 1 UG Student, VIII SEM, Dept. of Civil Engineering, R V C E, Bangalore, India 2 UG Student, VIII SEM, Dept. of Civil Engineering, R V C E, Bangalore, India 3 UG Student, VIII SEM, Dept. of Civil Engineering, R V C E, Bangalore, India 4 UG Student, VIII SEM, Dept. of Civil Engineering, R V C E, Bangalore, India Abstract The construction practices of today demands production of alternative building materials which consume less energy and can be used for construction. One such material is the stabilized adobe bricks. In the present work, the adobes are prepared using the locally available soil in the nearby region in Bangalore. Since blocks purely made of soil are prone to shrinkage it is required to stabilize these blocks. Hence, an attempt is made to stabilize these blocks using lime and cement in varying proportions. The variation in properties like compressive strength, initial rate of absorption and water absorption are studied and compared..The main objective of this project is to analyze the various engineering properties of adobe bricks using lime as the stabilizer so as to establish the potential of these bricks as an alternative to traditional bricks. The present work aims at investigating lime as stabilizer to adobe brick mixes commonly used in Bangalore region. The results obtained ascertain that these can be used as a masonry unit in construction industries replacing other traditional materials which contain a lot of embodied energy. Keywords: Alternative Building Material, Stabilized Adobe, Embodied Energy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------***------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INTRODUCTION Earth has been the most widely known and abundantly available material for human society to use it in construction. From the days of Egyptian and Mesopotamian earth is main part of any construction in its different forms. Local availability of mud makes its use advantageous, and ease of processing makes it one of the most energy efficient building material, cost effective and it is a very reliable material for any building in general and low cost buildings in particular. The technology of stabilized soil for wall construction has been known in India for more than 60 years. Traditionally mud has been extensively used for building construction in India and elsewhere. Traditional earth construction technology has undergone a considerable change that enhances earth’s durability and quality as a construction material for low-cost buildings. Such methods include rammed earth and machine compressed stabilized earth blocks. The construction practices of today heavily depend on materials like burnt bricks, cement, and other metals like steel, aluminum etc. These are energy intensive materials which consume a lot of energy and thus the production of these building blocks has a negative impact on environment. Since these materials can be produced only in particular areas there is a need to transport these materials to the site where they are to be used and again resulting in consumption of energy, so it is quite evident that these materials contain lot of embodied energy in them. Hence it is important to produce alternative building materials which consume less energy and can be used for construction. One such material is the stabilized adobe bricks. Adobe in general means a stabilized sundried mud brick. It is sometimes useful to explore the potential of stabilized adobe. In this case, a stabilizing additive is added. Studies by various experts have shown the effectiveness in use of these blocks as construction materials. Adobe has been used in construction for thousands of years and even now about 30% of the population lives in earthen structures. 1.1 Clay Clay is cohesive in nature. Under moist conditions, it imparts plasticity to the soil The presence of clay in moderate amounts in a soil is desirable. Since clay has cohesive nature, it imparts plasticity to the soil when under moist conditions. The existence of thin film of absorbed water which adheres strongly to the clay layers thus linking the particles together leads to plasticity. Thus, the clay minerals act as natural binding agents for the cohesionless granular fractions of a soil (gravel, sand, and silt).However the drawbacks associated with the clay is the fact that it has a high affinity towards water. Clayey soils swell in presence of water and shrinks in the absence of it. If the clay mineral is montmorillonite, this kind of swelling and shrinking is more prominent. Such volume instability is not highly undesirable in mortars. Therefore, soils which have clay content below 30% can be stabilized using cement and soils which clay content above 30% can be stabilized using lime