Effect of volcanic tuff on the engineering properties of compressed earth block

Purpose: of this paper is to investigate the durability and the mechanical properties, including compressive and flexural strengths, of the locally compressed earth blocks manufactured from soil in Irbid, Jordan. Moreover, effect of volcanic tuff as new stabilizer material on properties of compressed earth block (CEB). Compressed earth block is a technique that was created to solve environmental and economic problems in construction sector. It is widespread in many countries around the world but hasn't been used in Jordan yet. Design/methodology/approach: 9 mixtures were carried out. One of this mixture is the control mix, beside other mixtures were performed by replacing soil with 40%, 10%, 10%, of sand, volcanic tuff, and lime respectively. In addition, polypropylene fibre was used. After 28 days of curing, the CEB were dried in oven at 105ºC for 24 hours then tested. Findings: Show that absorption and erosion were decreased when the lime used in the soil. On the other hand, the fibres presence significantly improved the durability and mechanical properties in all mixtures. Moreover, the higher compressive strength was obtained in the mixtures which contain lime only while the higher tensile strength was obtained in the mixtures which contain lime with sand replacement. The using of volcanic tuffs produced average compressive strength values. The reason is that in the presence of lime and pozzolana (volcanic tuff) reactions take place at low and slow rate at early ages. Research limitations/implications: volcanic tuff can produce favourable compressive strengths at later ages and this is a point of interest in the future work. Originality/value: Searching for a new material as stabilizer material that improves the properties of the compressed earth block (CEB).