Determining material characteristics of "Rammed Earth" for structural design of sustainable insulated walls

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Concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials and has CO2 emissions associated not just with the manufacturing process of cement, but also transport of ingredients over long distances. One solution is to use reduce the amount of transportation required in shipping these ingredients and/or the finished material. One of the building materials, Rammed Earth (RE) also known as "Pisé de terre" and when rammed is used with a cement additive, it is known as "cement-stabilized soil." This material is becoming a popular construction material for constructed insulated and non-insulated walls that offer high thermal mass and insulation and can further help reduce the cost of heating/cooling over the life of the structure. However, the structural performance of such engineered walls is not fully understood. Moreover, the design parameters including material characteristics and the associated statistical variation is a not available. UNISOL Engineering Ltd (UEL) has identified the specific need to standardize the process of molding specimens to determine the compressive and flexural characteristics of the material and to understand the boundary effect of ramming. There is also a need to understand the formwork pressures that could be used to design safe and economical formwork. UEL has identified the benefit of studying the effect of various cement and fly-ash/metakaolin (both industrial wastes) contents on the limit state conditions and on the modulus of elasticity- in compression, tension and bending. UEL is also looking to understand the effect of the environment on short-term durability of RE. In this project rammed earth specimens will be constructed and the material characteristics of the specimens will be studied