COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS REINFORCED WITH FIBERS (DOUM PALM) AND STABILIZED WITH LIME: MANUAL COMPACTION PROCEDURE AND INFLUENCE OF ADDITION ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND DURABILITY

Abstract

Raw earth is a natural, abundant and reusable building material. It is old and current. There are several earth construction techniques: Adobe, cob, compressed earth bricks, etc. These constructions vary according to the following characteristics: Physical, energetic, ecological and socioeconomic. Our research tends to enhance local materials and help reduce construction costs and save energy (heating/air conditioning). The main objective of this work is to study the effect of the use of the addition of the fibers of the region, in particular, the doum palm on the mechanical properties and on the durability (method of alternating wetting/drying cycle) of the blocks of earth tablets stabilized with lime. In this context, three lime contents (0%, 5%, 10% and 12%) of the weight of the dry mixture, and four contents of doum palm fibers (0%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and 2.5%; with a length of 10mm and 40mm) are used for the production of compressed earth blocks (CEB) using a manual press which was made by a blacksmith in a popular district (El Karia in Salé). The results obtained showed that there is an improvement in the dry compressive strength of compressed earth blocks depending on the dosage of the earth with lime and/or fibers. The results show that 10% in dosage of lime with the earth and 1% in dosage of doum palm fibers have the best resistance to dry compression, while the wet compressive strength is low compared to the dry compressive strength, it means that the water content plays an important role in the stability of the compressed earth blocks. This study also showed that the flood time leads to an improvement in the resistance of compressed earth blocks.