Experimental study of cement mortar-steel fiber reinforced rammed earth wall

Abstract

Rammed earth construction is an ancient technique which has recently attracted renewed interest throughout the world. Although rammed earth is currently regarded as a promising material in the construction industry in the context of sustainable development, it is difficult to quantify its bearing capacity, mechanical performance, as well as retrofitting approach, which discourages people from large-scale application in architectural engineering. This paper is devoted to the study of these problems based on rammed earth wall model experimentation. Three different models are studied considering different material components as well as structural configurations. By measuring the strain and deformation of the rammed earth wall models subjected to uniformly-distributed vertical loading, their ultimate bearing capacities are tested based on experimental investigation. Then the method of cement mortar-steel fiber reinforcement (CMSF) is carried out to study the ultimate bearing capacity enhancement of the wall models. Results show that the method of cement mortar-steel fiber reinforcement can increase the ultimate bearing capacity of the rammed earth wall models significantly, which is of relevant engineering significance in practical application. © 2012 by the authors.