Modification of Lateritic Soil Used as Bricks with Banana Leaves Ash

The nation’s construction sector has suffered greatly due to the high cost of building materials, which has raised interest in studies on locally available materials and ways to modify them as alternatives for building reasonably priced but useful dwellings in both urban and rural areas. X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction was used to identify the crystalline phase in banana leaf ash, lateritic soil, and oxide content. By weight of the lateritic soil, engineering properties, lateritic soil sample with modifiers and categorization of the lateritic soil sample were established in percentages of 2, 4, 6, and 8%. The XRD reveals that the BLA comprises 56%, 25%, 13%, and 6% of calcite, quartz, sylvite, and magnetite, respectively. On the other hand, laterite exhibits a 70%, 27%, and 3% concentration of kaolinite, quartz, and hematite, respectively. The BLA has 27.37% SiO2, 2.21% Al2O3, and 1.41% Fe2O3, according to the XRF analysis. It is implied to be based on the findings of the particle grain size passing through the sieves No. 0.075 and 0.45, which are 66.5% and 80.3%, respectively, silty-clay (The Unified Soil Classification System) and A-7-5(8) (AASHTO). There is high and medium flexibility in the lateritic soil, according to the Atterberg limit test. The natural soil’s maximum dry density and moisture content are 19.2% and 1.68 Mg/m3, respectively. For the BLA and laterite mix, the ideal moisture content ranges from 18.6 to 23.5% as the modifier content increases. However, for banana leaf ash, the maximum dry density falls as the modifiers range from 1.63 to 1.68 Mg/m3.