Page 16 - CSEB Report

Study on Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks

fired bricks and concrete bricks [10].

The working mechanism is simple for the production of the CSEB which does not require skill
labors. Broadly there are only 3 stages process which are: Soil preparation, soil mix

compaction and the bricks curing as shown in the Figure 2, which does not require
sophisticated mechanic system that consumes fuel/ power.

The production of earth-based materials consumes much less energy and pollutes much less
than fired bricks. Thus CSEB and Rammed earth are much more eco-friendly[1].

Table 5: Comparison (Courtesy: Development Alternatives, New Delhi, 1998)

Pollution emission (Kg of CO2 /m ) Energy consumption (MJ)
2

2.4 times less than wire cut bricks 4.9 times less than wire cut bricks

7.9 times less than country fired bricks 15.1 times less than country fired bricks

6. Cost Effectiveness
The primary source of material is locally available everywhere, the bricks can be made at
the site with no transportation cost and with simple manufacturing process. In addition, since
any skill level labours can handle the machine, by virtue manufacturing cost is low compare
to other bricks. The analysis of cost comparison of CSEB Bricks and Red Bricks was done as

followed (Table 6):
All the assumption considered during this calculation of CSEB cost is based on the
experienced gain during practical demonstration at the site. And since dimension of Red
Bricks and CSEB Bricks are different, their cost comparison were made on volumetric basis,
that is cost for 1 cubic meter each.

1. Cost of 1 cubic meter of CSEB

Assumed density of Soil kg/cu.m =1860
Weight of soil in 1cubic meter = 1860
Size of the brick=300x150x100

labour working dura-
SI No Specification Rate (Nu) Total (Nu)
(no) tion (Days)
Excavation & Siev-
1 2 0.5 300 300
ing

2 Mixing 1 0.5 500 250
3 Molding 3 0.5 300 450
Labour cost
4 Stacking 1 0.5 300 150
Total labours cost
1150
(Nu)

15 Engineering Adaptation and Risk Reduction Division (EARRD), DES, MOWHS