Bitu Block—A Sustainable Building Block

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation on a new sustainable building block in cooperating waste materials namely, rice husk ash (RHA), fly ash, crushed glass, aggregates bound with bitumen as the binder. The bitublocks were prepared using four different mixes and its properties such as compressive strength, volume stability, the initial rate of suction (IRS), density, etc. were determined. It shows that all these properties are dependent on the type of aggregates and bitumen used as well as on compaction and the temperature at the time of mixing. In the UK similar experiments were done but the mixes used were different. Our results show that the properties of bitublock units are approximately similar to masonry building blocks available in India and it can be used in non-structural walls such as partition walls etc.