Improving the performance of adobe paving of sidewalks and rural passages using additives

Iran is one of the oldest countries in the world in using adobe in construction. Most of the architectural structures and rural houses in this country are made of adobe which have attracted the attention of many tourists. Today, with the advancement of science and technology and the abundance of adobe materials and the importance of tourism in Iran, the use of adobe block, a method that has played a role in the structures and architecture of the country for many years, has been given great attention. Since the dark color of conventional pavements, including asphalt pavements, does not match the color of the adobe and mud architectural-historical buildings of the village and affects its beauty; this study tries to explore the performance of adobe block stabilized with cement and lime to be used in paving sidewalks in rural areas with low traffic load. To this end, different adobe blocks were made of clay sand soil and fixed with different percentages of cement and lime and then tested for water absorption percentage, compressive strength, flexural strength, slip resistance and finally the modulus of elasticity. The results showed that in the case of cement stabilization, with increasing the percentage of cement from 5% to 15%, the amount of water absorption and friction decreases by about 17% and 14%, respectively, and with increasing the percentage of cement from 5% to 15% during a 3-day curing, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and compressive strength increase by about 11, 89 and 92%, respectively. Regarding lime stabilization, by increasing the percentage of lime to 8%, the amount of water absorption and friction decreases by about 6 and 18%, respectively. Also, by increasing the percentage of lime from 4% to 8% during a 3-day curing, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and compressive strength increase by about 99, 96 and 115%, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that in addition to the amount of stabilizer, the curing time is effective in compressive strength of samples.