Paper Title
Water Transport Studies of Some Masonry Units

Abstract
This paper deals with water transport studies in masonry. This is done to know the duration of soaking of masonry units before masonry construction, so as to achieve good masonry efficiency. Dry masonry units when used with mortar of insufficient water retentvity leads to poor masonry strength. In this research program three types of masonry units have been studied. The masonry units considered are the conventional clay bricks, and the alternative masonry units stabilized mud blocks and boulder blocks. In each of the masonry units there types have been taken up for the study. Cement mortar (1 cement: 6 sand) have been tried along with all types of masonry units. In addition soil cement mortars of two different proportions i.e. [(1 cement: 6 soil = 9 sand) and (1cement:2 soil: 9 sand)]with stabilized mud blocks have also been investigated. From the results it has been found that masonry units considered in the study have to be soaked in water for 10 to 20 minutes before construction. This has to be done to maintain a satisfactory water cement ratio of 0.6 in the mortar used in masonry to have complete cement hydration. Keywords- Masonry units, soaking, water retentivity, mortars.