STABILIZATION OF RAMMED EARTH

Mihir vora, Ankit patel, Mohammad Soyab Shaikh

Abstract: Rammed earth is an ancient building technique used in many regions of the world. Due to the low embodied energy of the material and diminished transportation costs, rammed earth offers an economical and sustainable alternative to concrete. Along with other advantages like sustainable construction, architectural quality & flexibility, contribution to building health and performance, ease & speed of construction etc. The main weakness of earth as a building material lies in its low resistance to water. Overhanging eaves and verandas help considerably, but tropical rains of any intensity can damage unprotected walls. Because of the clay fraction, which is necessary for cohesion, walls built of unstabilised soil will swell on taking up water and shrink on drying. This may lead to severe cracking and difficulty in getting protective renderings to adhere to the wall. There are some issues which needs to be addressed like shrinkage, proper soil selection, low compressive strength, cracking, durability aspects etc for rammed earth construction. From the available literatures and research works done earlier, it is evident that one way to address these problems is to stabilize rammed earth with cement. The primary objective of this study is to make use of the RHA (waste material) with NS and understand its effects on the geotechnical properties, compressive strength & weathering. The proctor tests results indicates that with the increase in RHA percentage there was an increase in the Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) and reduction in the Maximum Dry Density (MDD). The cube compressive strength values decreased with subsequent addition of RHA to its maximum at 5% RHA. The deterioration is increases with increasing in RHA content.

Keywords: Rammed earth, Rice husk ash, OMC and MDD, Weathering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0304053