Mechanical Behaviour of Earth Building Materials

Abstract

AbstractEarth based building materials having low or negligible carbon footprint are looked upon as a sustainable alternative building material in the construction sector. The confidence of using any building material is augmented with through understanding of its mechanical properties. A brief review on the mechanical properties of the building materials such as Rammed Earth, Earth Blocks (Adobe, Compressed Earth Block, and Extruded Blocks) and Cob, which are manufactured using raw earth or by adding very little additives are presented in this chapter. The mechanical behaviour of earth based building material is highly dependent on raw material, manufacturing technique and testing conditions. Therefore it is highly recommended to conduct through experimental campaign for every soil mix. This chapter also presents various experiments recommended to study the mechanical properties of the materials.KeywordsRammed EarthEarth BlocksCobMechanical propertiesMechanical tests