The selection of soils for unstabilised earth building: A normative review

Earth building techniques make use of unbaked earth as a material for constructing walls. We consider that evaluation of soils is a primary question because not all soils are adequate for earth building, and not for any of the earth building techniques. Following a selection of more than 20 technica...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inConstruction & building materials Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 237 - 251
Main Authors Jiménez Delgado, M. Carmen, Guerrero, Ignacio Cañas
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2007
Elsevier B.V
Subjects
Earth building
Soil suitability
Soil suitability
Earth building
Standards
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Earth building techniques make use of unbaked earth as a material for constructing walls. We consider that evaluation of soils is a primary question because not all soils are adequate for earth building, and not for any of the earth building techniques. Following a selection of more than 20 technical documents including standards from National Standards Bodies, we analysed the provisions they offered concerning soil suitability, for the use of unstabilised earth. The work presented here articulates the whole of the different approaches and kinds of recommendation offered, for providing a way of comparison. Particle size distribution is the property most frequently mentioned, followed in number by the organic matter and salts content. Plasticity, binding force, shrinkage, presence of cracks and compactibility are the other properties for which recommendations are given. Most of the times these are imprecise, variable and not strict enough, and a unification work would be desirable.
ISSN:0950-0618
1879-0526
DOI:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2005.08.006