AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON STABILIZED MUD MORTAR WITH YELLOW-WHITE (GREY) SOIL

Abstract

Masonry mortar is a homogenous mixture comprising of fine aggregate, binding material and water. In the current scenario, where the supply of sand is falling short of meeting the demand, it becomes imperative to finding an alternative. The locally available soils are intended to solve this problem. Mud mortar was commonly used for low rise masonry buildings in the past. When clay containing soil used for the mortar, problems like volume instability due to its high affinity towards water occurred. To remedies this problem, stabilization of the mortar is necessary. Cement, lime and fly ash are used as binders individually and in combination. The research is focused on an experimental study to understand the various characteristics of stabilized mud mortars. Workability and strength of 24 different combinations of stabilized mud mortars have been examined. Compressive strength tests were conducted to quantify the workability of the mortars. In the present work, the viability of replacing sand partially or fully with locally available yellow-white (grey) soil and brick dust is studied. The mortar with the alternative fine aggregates mixed with different combinations of binding materials i.e., cement, lime and fly ash was tested for 7, 21 and 28 days compressive strength. The mortar with 50% replacement of sand, 12% cement and 2 % fly ash has compressive strength in the range of 5.22 MPa which is acceptable as per the IS code 2250 specification the minimum strength requirement of mortar to be 3.0 MPa. Therefore, the use of stabilized mud mortar in construction would prove to be sustainable.