Mechanical characterization of rammed earth construction material

Abstract

In recent years, earthen constructions attracted the interest of researchers and companies in the construction sector and found to be a great alternative to the existing cementitious techniques. Rammed earth construction technique is creating renewed interest as an environmentally sustainable building solution for the construction sector. The earth material considered for rammed earth construction is a soil graded from clay to fine gravel with a small water amount. The technique consists of compacting the soil in layers with equivalent thicknesses using a wooden or steel formworks. The formwork is then removed and the soil is left for curing. An experimental test program is carried out in the purpose of characterizing the geotechnical and mechanical properties of rammed earth material. The geotechnical properties are obtained from the combination of sieving/sedimentation analysis and standard proctor test. Whereas, the test program on the mechanical properties includes normal and diagonal compression tests on unstabilized/stabilized and unreinforced/reinforced rammed earth material. Data acquisition and post-processing of test results are performed using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique for better understanding of the behavior and failure modes of the rammed earth material. Experimental results showed that the stabilization and fiber reinforcements have an influence on the normal and diagonal compressive strength of the rammed earth material.