EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON EFFECT OF STEEL FIBRE, PVC FIBRE AND JUTE FIBRE ON THE ENGINEERING CHARACTERISTICS OF ECO-FRIENDLY INTERLOCKING MUD BRICKS

Abstract

The usual method of rising wall in both ancient and modern times are done by filling mortar in between bricks, now cement and M-sand are being used for mortar, which are destructing natural resources, so to avoid this, there comes Interlocking mud bricks, the projection at the top and depression at the bottom are responsible for the interlock mechanism, also good in earthquake-resistant structure, As this is interesting and the product is eco-friendly too, we developed an interest in it. We visited a manufacturing unit and a residential construction entirely done by mud interlock brick, the one major drawback we noticed is that it produces cracks and breaks at edges, which reduces strength, life span, aesthetics and possible threat to infestation.  This is the main problem statement of our project. To overcome this, we added fibres during the blending process, namely Steel fibre (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%), Jute fibre (0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%) and PVC fibre (0.6%, 0.8%, 1.0%) which leads to an increase in compressive and flexural strength. The PVC fibre of 0.8% mix ratio produced 39% higher compressive strength when compared to Interlocking mud bricks, which is much higher than all other fibres mainly due to its flexibility and shape factors.