Abstract
AbstractRammed earth (RE) is attracting renewed interest throughout the world because of its low embodied energy and its interesting hygric-thermal behavior. Several studies have recently been carried out to investigate this material. However, the seismic behavior of RE walls is still an important subject that needs to be more thoroughly investigated. The present study assesses the seismic performance of RE walls by using the discrete element modeling (DEM) and the nonlinear pushover method. Firstly, nonlinear “force–displacement” curves of the studied wall were obtained by DEM. Secondly, the standard “acceleration–displacement” curves were carried out following Eurocode 8. Thirdly, the above curves were superimposed to determine the intersection point (target point) which enabled to assess the seismic performance of the studied wall in the corresponding conditions (vertical load, seismic zone). The results show that the studied walls can have satisfactory resistance in seismicity zones ranging from “very...
Highlights
Rammed earth (RE) is attracting interest in the context of sustainable development because of its low embodied energy and its interesting hygric-thermal behavior
The results show that the studied walls can have satisfactory resistance in seismicity zones ranging from “very low” to “moderate”
For the configurations studied in this paper, the results show that for “very low” to “moderate” seismicity zones: Unreinforced RE buildings can be constructed on A and B soils
Summary
Rammed earth (RE) is attracting interest in the context of sustainable development because of its low embodied energy and its interesting hygric-thermal behavior. It is important to note that the seismic behavior of a RE building depends on several parameters: Earthquake action (seismicity zone, soil type, site factors), the structure’s dynamic characteristics (natural frequencies, modal shapes, damping), and the material’s characteristics (compressive, tensile strengths, Young’s modulus, density). This is why for the same material (RE in this case), the seismic performance of each building may differ depending on its structural characteristics and the quality of its execution. If the inelastic spectrum is used, the performance point will be D2 (Figure 1(c))
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