Performance evaluation of red clay binder with epoxy emulsion for autonomous rammed earth construction

Abstract

Existing rammed earth construction methods have disadvantages such as increased initial costs for manufacturing the large formwork and increased labor costs owing to the labor-intensive construction techniques involved. To address the limitations of the existing rammed earth construction methods, an autonomous rammed earth construction method was introduced herein. When constructing an autonomous rammed-earth construction method, an alternative means of assuring the performance at the initial age of the binder in terms of materials is needed. In this study, in order to satisfy the performance of the red clay binder, epoxy emulsion was added to analyze the compressive strength, water loosening, shrinkage, rate of mass change, and microstructure in the range of the initial age. As a result of the analysis, the applicability of the epoxy emulsion was confirmed as a new additive for application to an autonomous rammed-earth construction method.