Abstract
A number of rammed earth projects constructed in recent years in Germany and abroad testify to the high level of architectural interest in this material, not only in our country. Rammed earth has been “rediscovered”, in particular by young architects, due to its unique materiality and fascinating and individual surface aesthetics. In connection with the realisation of two rammed earth projects realised in Thuringia, Germany, in 2003/2004 some questions arose concerning the process of moisture transfer and changes in strength properties during construction. The earthen building standards detail only very rough estimates of drying times for rammed earth walls. The idea arose to develop a test programme for investigating the aspect of drying time with regard to the change in material strength in rammed earth walls, as well as for elaborating general aspects of testing procedures for rammed earth in standards. The paper presents results of a laboratory programme that attempts to approach this very complex problem. A series of test specimens were produced and the unconfined compressive strength was determined after different drying times varying from 7 to 90 days. The moisture content of the test specimens also was varied: at OMC (Proctor test) and above and below the OMC.
Highlights
A number of rammed earth projects constructed in recent years in Germany and abroad testify to the high level of architectural interest in this material, in our country
In connection with the realisation of two rammed earth projects realised in Thuringia, Germany, in 2003/2004 (1) (Figures 1, 2) some questions arose concerning the process of moisture transfer and desiccation accompanied by changes in strength properties during construction
Materials and methods The natural raw earth material used for testing was a typical loess-type clay sourced from Kleinfahner in Northern Thuringia, the same kind used for both the aforementioned rammed earth projects
Summary
A number of rammed earth projects constructed in recent years in Germany and abroad testify to the high level of architectural interest in this material, in our country. The idea arose to develop a test programme for investigating the aspect of drying time with regard to the change in material strength in rammed earth walls, as well as for elaborating general aspects of testing procedures for rammed earth in standards. En relación con la realización de dos proyectos de tierra apisonada realizados en Turingia, Alemania, en el período 2003/2004 surgieron algunas preguntas sobre el proceso de transferencia de la humedad y los cambios en las propiedades de resistencia durante la construcción. Surgió la idea de desarrollar un programa de pruebas para investigar el aspecto del tiempo de secado con respecto al cambio en la resistencia del material en muros de tierra apisonada, así como para establecer los aspectos generales de los procedimientos de ensayo de tierra apisonada en las normas. Palabras clave: transferencia de humedad, resistencia, secado, ensayo, construcción con tierra
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