Structural behavior of rectangular cement-stabilized rammed earth column under compression

Abstract

The paper presents a novel experimental investigation, comprising material tests and column tests, focusing on the effect of concentric axial loading and slenderness on the capacity reduction factors of cement stabilized rammed earth (CSRE) columns of rectangular (R) cross sections. The study also attempted to calculate the ultimate compressive strength of columns using the tangent modulus theory. The experimental results compare quite favorably with published codal provisions. There is a reduction in strength as the slenderness ratio (effective height to thickness ratio) increases from about 2 to 10. At higher slenderness ratios, there was a close agreement between the experimental value and value predicted by tangent modulus theory on ultimate strength.