Comparison of Compressive Strength and Water Absorption Characteristics of Cement stabilized Earth Blocks Reinforced with Banana and Jute fibers

This paper discusses the influence of textile fiber reinforcement with concrete materials for evaluating the mechanical property and water absorption of banana and jute fiber reinforced conventional sand block for calculating the suitability in affordable and environment friendly construction material production. The experimental design was completely randomized with three categories like treated earth block, untreated earth block and clay brick. The treated blocks were representing 47.4 MPa Compressive strength whereas an untreated block was represented as on average 14.2 MPa. Meanwhile, the untreated earth block result is 15.5% and clay brick result is 19.2% which is maximum for the water absorption test. It was identified from the study that the water absorption rate must remain below 22% to guarantee the material's longevity. This experimental work study was found that the comparison between blocks with no fiber reinforcement and blocks with banana and jute reinforcement which can include extra compressive strength and water absorbency as per Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institute (BSTI). It was found that the difference in properties of a block by adding banana and jute fibers in the conventional sand blocks. These efforts were necessary to ensure the environment friendly technology of textile reinforced concrete gets widely accepted for building affordable and durable constructions.