Experimnental Method to Measure the Mechanic Behavior of Compressed Earth Blocks in Continuous Compression

Abstract

This article presents the results of an experiment carried out in laboratory which aims at finding an experimental method to determine the mechanic behavior of compressed earth blocks through a very simple compressive test. As a matter of fact, the evaluation of the deformation of blocks under a progressively increasing load, by the means of a load cell and the Linear Variable Displacement Transducer (LVDT) put together on a manually operated press, has indeed enabled us to realize a strain-stress curve. Here, the analysis of this curve shows that the mechanic behavior of the earth blocks in compression is pseudo-elastic and ends off by a macro-brittle rupture because the stress is homogeneously distributed all over the surface of blocks. Therefore, we can use this device to draw up the behavior’s law of compressed earth blocks.