Mechanical properties of compressed soil brick by using jute fiber / Shahrul Nizam Julis

Construction over brick is a major issue affecting cost and scheduling of projects. Many techniques have been conducted to strengthen the brick. Most of them are using additives or composite materials to strengthen the brick such as paddy straw, rice husk ash, fly ash and stone dust. The strength of the brick is commonly expressed as compression strength, flexural strength and water absorption. The objective of study is to determine the properties of soil in term of mix design with percentage of jute fiber that will be added to the compressed soil brick (CSB) starts with 1, 2 and 3 % by weight respectively. All the soil properties such as Plasticity Index (PI) must be in suitable range between 5 to 15 % to make the production of CSB successful and the result of it is 12 %. Moreover, the one of the most important things in production of bricks is it needs binder which is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The binder usually used around minimum 5% to maximum 10% from the brick’s weight. The composition of OPC used in CSB is 5 % as economical to faster the drying process. Next, to ensure the CSB’s strength, several tests must be performed for instance compression, flexural and water absorption to the CSB together with the current addition of jute fiber. The results showed that the highest value of maximum force and stress of the sample for compression and flexural is better with 1 % of jute fiber. It is also showed the highest percentage of water absorption is at 13.14 % that is in range between 10 to 20 % of good quality of bricks in absorption of water from previous studies. It can be concluded that the CSB have a good potential towards wider usage of construction nowadays. Furthermore, it will give aesthetic value which is no use of fire in production of it that to make it different with the other production of bricks such as clay brick that use fire burning to increase its strength. Furthermore, CSB will be more recognizable as environmental friendly material used in development project that can save nature from various pollution and damage regarding to infrastructural and environmental element in Malaysia.