Engineering, 2016, 8, 669-675 http://www.scirp.org/journal/eng ISSN Online: 1947-394X ISSN Print: 1947-3931 DOI: 10.4236/eng.2016.810060 October 10, 2016 Suitability of Large Sized Compacted Baked Clay Blocks as a Walling Material Nawab Ali Lakho, Muhammad Auchar Zardari * Department of Civil Engineering, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan Abstract Some disadvantages associated with conventional brick masonry are: high cost of construction, lower compressive strength and less durability. In order to resolve these problems, a new technique of constructing walls using large size baked clay blocks is introduced. For this purpose, clay blocks of size 150 mm × 300 mm × 1980 mm were cast at a pressure of 6 MPa, and fired at a temperature of 700˚C. In this paper, compressive strength and tensile strength of baked clay were investigated in order to find its suitability as a walling material for low cost houses. Cubes of 150 mm sides were tested in compression and the beams were tested in flexure. The re- sults showed that compressive strength of baked clay cubes was found to be 10 MPa and tensile strength, in terms of modulus of rupture, was found to be 2.3 MPa. Since the baked clay blocks are larger in size than traditional bricks, it is inferred that the blocks could be used as a cheaper and stronger walling material. Keywords Baked Clay, Compressive Strength, Modulus of Rupture, Walling Material, Low Cost Houses 1. Introduction Developing countries like Pakistan are experiencing more population growth and have limited resources to meet housing crisis for low income people. Main structural ele- ments of a building are: footing, column, wall, beam and slab. Of these elements, walls require more than 50% of total material of building construction. Traditionally, baked clay bricks are used as a material of construction of walls. But, brick masonry has some drawbacks such as: 1) it requires more quantity of cement mortar, plastering material and more labour cost, and 2) compressive strength of a masonry wall is generally less as compared to that of individual bricks. How to cite this paper: Lakho, N.A. and Zardari, M.A. (2016) Suitability of Large Sized Compacted Baked Clay Blocks as a Walling Material. Engineering, 8, 669-675. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/eng.2016.810060 Received: August 21, 2016 Accepted: October 7, 2016 Published: October 10, 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access