A unified failure criterion for unstabilized rammed earth materials upon varying relative humidity conditions

作者：Gerard Pierre^*; Mahdad Mohamed; McCormack Alexandre Robert; Francois Bertrand

来源：Construction and Building Materials, 2015, 95: 437-447.

DOI：10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.07.100

• Unstabilized rammed earth material
• Compressive strength
• Tensile strength
• Suction
• Failure criterion
• Effective stress

Uniaxial compression tests and indirect tensile tests are performed on compacted clayey silt samples upon varying suctions in order to assess the influence of changes in the relative humidity conditions on the strength of unstabilized rammed earthen building materials. The results show that suction plays an important role on the strength of the material. Also the ability of the Belgian clayey silt to develop sufficient mechanical strength to be used as an unstabilized earthen construction material is demonstrated whatever the relative humidity conditions, excepted the fully water saturated state. The experimental data are interpreted in the context of unsaturated soil mechanics using the generalized effective stress concept. This constitutive framework allows defining a unified failure criterion predicting the strength of the earthen building material as a function of the environmental hygroscopic conditions.

• 出版日期2015-10-1