https://doi.org/10.4081/jae.2021.1154

Raw earth-based building materials: An investigation on mechanical properties of Floridia soil-based adobes

Vol. 52 No. 2 (2021)
    Published:28 June 2021
    Raw earth building components, physical stabilization, mechanical tests, circular economy, sustainability.
    Abstract Views: 1815
    PDF: 762
    HTML: 21
    Publisher's note
    All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

    Authors

    Monica Parlato
    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8908-0147
    Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Italy.
    Simona M.C. Porto
    simona.porto@unict.it
    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8303-3486
    Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Italy.
    Giovanni Cascone
    Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Italy.

    Raw earth, like wood and stone, is one of the oldest building materials used across the world. Nowadays, given the growing role of circular economy, researchers are ever more interested in raw earth-based building materials, because they are widely available and environmentally friendly. The use of this traditional material has positive environmental consequences, especially in traditional rural building reuse and in rural landscape preservation. In fact, raw earth is locally available and totally recyclable and, thanks to its perfect integration into the landscape, it improves site visual perception. Additives and/or chemical stabilizer agents (i.e., Portland cement) are often used in the production of raw earthbased building components in order to increase their mechanical performance and durability. This production process reduces the environmental sustainability of the base material and causes a relevant increase on the embodied energy (i.e., the total energy required for the extraction, processing, manufacturing, and delivery of building components). This research work aimed at investigating how to improve the mix-design of earth-based building materials in order to increase their mechanical properties without any addition of chemical agents. A physical stabilization was performed on an original texture soil by adding various particle sizes. Mechanical tests were carried out on five different soil mixes by changing soil composition, aggregates, and water. Specimens made with mix-design 5 offered the best results in terms of flexural and compressive strength values which were 1.65 MPa and 6.74 MPa, respectively. Mix 3 obtained the lowest linear shrinkage rate (6.04%). Since raw earth-based materials are highly sensitive to soil composition and aggregates, this study attempted to obtain a repeatable process to produce semi-industrial adobes by optimizing and controlling various natural materials (i.e., soils, aggregates, and water).

    Dimensions

    Altmetric

    PlumX Metrics

    Downloads

    Download data is not yet available.

    Citations

    Crossref
    Scopus
    Google Scholar
    Europe PMC
    Achenza M., Sanna U. 2009. Il Manuale tematico della Terra Cruda, Dei Tipografia del Genio Civile, Italy.
    Araya-Letelier G., Concha-Riedel J., Antico F.C., Valdés C., Cáceres G. 2018. Influence of natural fiber dosage and length on adobe mixes damage-mechanical behavior. Constr. Build. Mater. 174:645-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.151
    Avrami E.C., Guillaud H., Hardy M. (Eds.). eds. 2008. Terra literature review: an overview of research in earthen architecture conservation. Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
    Barbari M., Monti M., Rossi G., Simonini S., Guerri F.S. 2014a. Proposal for a simple method of structural calculation for ordinary earthen buildings in rural areas. J. Food Agric. Environ. 12:1459-63.
    Barbari M., Monti M., Rossi G., Simonini S., Guerri F.S. 2014b. Simple methods and tools to determine the mechanical strength of adobe in rural areas. J. Food Agric. Environ. 12:904-9.
    Belfiore C.M., Amato C., Pezzino A., Viccaro M. 2020. An end of waste alternative for volcanic ash: A resource in the manufacture of ceramic tiles. Constr. Build. Mater. 263:120118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120118
    Ciancio D., Jaquin P., Walker P. 2013. Advances on the assessment of soil suitability for rammed earth. Constr. Build. Mater. 42:40-47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.12.049
    Fagone M., Kloft H., Loccarini F., Ranocchiai G. 2019. Jute fabric as a reinforcement for rammed earth structures. Compos. Part B Eng. 175:107064. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2019.107064
    Galán-Marín C., Rivera-Gómez C., Bradley F. 2013. Ultrasonic, molecular and mechanical testing diagnostics in natural fibre reinforced, polymer-stabilized earth blocks. Int. J. Polym. Sci. 2013:130582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/130582
    Gallipoli D., Bruno A.W., Perlot C., Mendes J. 2017. A geotechnical perspective of raw earth building. Acta Geotechn. 12:463-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-016-0521-1
    Giuffrida G., Caponetto R., Cuomo M. 2019. An overview on contemporary rammed earth buildings: Technological advances in production, construction and material characterization. IOP Conf. Ser. Earth Environ. Sci. 296:012018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/296/1/012018
    Hall M., Djerbib Y. 2004. Rammed earth sample production: Context, recommendations and consistency. Constr. Build. Mater. 18:281-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2003.11.001
    Houben H., Guillaud H. 2006. CRATerre: TraiteÃ…Lde Construction en Terre. EÃ…Lditions Parenthe`ses: Marseille, France.
    NMAC. 2003. New Mexico Earthen Building Materials Code. Construction Industries Division (CID) of the Regulation and Licensing Department (Santa Fe Ì, NM).
    SNZ. 1998. New Zealand Standard 4298:1998. In: Materials and Workmanship for Earth Buildings, 1998 Standards. Wellington, New Zealand.
    Ouellet-Plamondon C.M., Habert G. 2016. Self-compacted clay based concrete (SCCC): proof-of-concept. J. Clean. Prod. 117:160-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.12.048
    Parlato M.C.M., Porto S.M.C. 2020. Organized framework of main possible applications of sheep wool fibers in building components. Sustain. 12:761. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030761
    Perrot A., Rangeard D., Menasria F., Guihéneuf S. 2018. Strategies for optimizing the mechanical strengths of raw earth-based mortars. Constr. Build. Mater. 167:496-504. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.055
    Picuno P. 2016. Use of traditional material in farm buildings for a sustainable rural environment. Int. J. Sustain. Built Environ. 5:451-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2016.05.005
    Statuto D., Sica C., Picuno P. 2018. Experimental development of clay bricks reinforced with agricultural by-products. Sustainable Farming-SFARM View project Mediterranean technology led incubator co-operation-MEDI-CUBE View project. Available from: http://atae.agr.hr/46th_ATAE_proceedings.pdf
    Türkmen İ., Ekinci E., Kantarcı F., Sarıcı T. 2017. The mechanical and physical properties of unfired earth bricks stabilized with gypsum and Elazığ Ferrochrome slag. Int. J. Sustain. Built Environ. 6:565-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2017.12.003
    Vega P., Juan A., Ignacio Guerra M., Morán J.M., Aguado P.J., Llamas B. 2011. Mechanical characterisation of traditional adobes from the north of Spain. Constr. Build. Mater. 25: 3020-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.02.003
    Woyciechowski P., Narloch P.L., Cichocki D. 2017. Shrinkage characteristics of cement stabilized rammed earth, in: MATEC Web of Conferences. 117:00178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201711700178

    How to Cite

    Parlato, M., Porto, S. M. and Cascone, G. (2021) “Raw earth-based building materials: An investigation on mechanical properties of Floridia soil-based adobes”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 52(2). doi: 10.4081/jae.2021.1154.
    Copyright (c) 2021 the Author(s) Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

    PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.


    Similar Articles

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

    You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.