ABSTRACT
Soil-cement brick manufacture is one of the most common use of soil-cement material. In this work, a sandy soil (72% sand content) was treated with 8% of Portland cement, on weight basis, and with the mixture were molded cylindrical specimens of 10 x 12,73cm in diameter and height, respectively, along with standard size bricks, and one 60 x 60cm masonry panel were molded The soil-cement bricks were molded in a manual operated machine and the soil-cement panel was constructed with nine layers of bricks provided with external devices for stress measurement. The results showed that soil-cement bricks were strong enough to meet the minimum Brazilian code requirements. On the other hand, soil-cement panel presented the first cracks when 0.91 MPa tension was applied, breaking to rupture close to 2.0 MPa.
Key words:
soil-cement; constructive element; strength