Influence of Water Content of Soil to Strength of Unfired Soil Lime Bricks

The paper discusses strength-time relation of unfired soil-lime bricks in presence of different water content of soil as one of principal materials for the brick making. Two batches of soil-lime bricks were made with a mixture of lime, soil and water with a mass proportion of 1: 5.7: 1. Water contents of the first and second batch of soil are 30% and 40.581% respectively. Both batches of brick underwent compression and three point bending test. Absorption and physical change of bricks were also evaluated. Experimental investigation reveals that for both batches of bricks, up to 90 days compressive strength decreases a little but modulus of rupture rapidly decreases with time. The study shows that unfired soil-lime bricks with lower soil water content resulted in better strength performances compared to those with higher soil water content.