Abstract
Mud earth blocks are green constructional materials with zero carbon footprints, low embodied energy, economical, etc., but having low compressive as well as least tensile strength and subjected to high shrinkage. This paper presents an experimental study on the behavior of mud earth blocks reinforced with natural fiber. The test blocks were prepared by adding 5% coir fiber by weight of dry soil as reinforcing material with varying sizes ranging from 2 to 8 cm. The effect on properties like shrinkage, compressive and tensile strength, cracking time, and failure pattern due to the presence of fiber were studied in comparison to unreinforced mud earth blocks. The test results showed that the mechanical properties of the blocks are highly affected by the fiber length. Compressive and tensile strength of the blocks with fiber length 4 cm gave the maximum results about 1.45 times and 4 times than that of unreinforced blocks, respectively. Thus, 4 cm length size fiber reinforced mud earth construction is recommended to achieve better structural performances.
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Sangma, S., Pohti, L., Tripura, D.D. (2019). Size Effect of Fiber on Mechanical Properties of Mud Earth Blocks. In: Agnihotri, A., Reddy, K., Bansal, A. (eds) Recycled Waste Materials. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering , vol 32. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7017-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7017-5_14
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