In this work we estimate , for the first time , the total masses and mass function slopes of a sample of 29 young and intermediate-age SMC clusters from CCD Washington photometry .
We also derive age , interstellar reddening and structural parameters for most of the studied clusters by employing a statistical method to remove the unavoidable field star contamination .
Only these 29 clusters out of 68 originally analysed cluster candidates present stellar overdensities and coherent distribution in their colour-magnitude diagrams compatible with the existence of a genuine star cluster .
We employed simple stellar population models to derive general equations for estimating the cluster mass based only on its age and integrated light in the B , V , I , C and T _ { 1 } filter .
These equations were tested against mass values computed from luminosity functions , showing an excellent agreement .
The sample contains clusters with ages between 60 Myr and 3 Gyr and masses between 300 and 3000 M _ { \odot } distributed between \sim 0.5 \degr and \sim 2 \degr from the SMC optical centre .
We determined mass function slopes for 24 clusters , of which 19 have slopes compatible with that of Kroupa ’ s IMF ( \alpha = 2.3 \pm 0.7 ) , considering the uncertainties .
The remaining clusters – H86-188 , H86-190 , K47 , K63 and NGC242 – showed flatter MFs .
Additionally , only clusters with masses lower than \sim 1000 M _ { \odot } and flatter MF were found within \sim 0.6 \degr from the SMC rotational centre .