TY - JOUR A1 - Wiehle, Philipp A1 - Simon, Sebastian A1 - Baier, J. A1 - Dennin, L. A2 - Forde, M. T1 - Influence of relative humidity on the strength and stiffness of unstabilised earth blocks and earth masonry mortar T2 - Construction and Building Materials N2 - Aim of this study is to provide information about moisture dependent material behaviour of unstabilised loadbearing earth blocks and mortars. Compressive strength and Young’s modulus were investigated after conditioning in varying relative humidity reaching from 40 % up to 95 %. The material composition and physical properties were investigated to understand the influence of relative humidity onto the mechanical properties. A normalisation of strength and stiffness by the values obtained at 23 ◦C and 50 % relative humidity reveals a linear dependence of compressive strength and Young’s modulus that is regardless of the material composition. Thus, it is possible to describe the influence of relative humidity onto the load-bearing behaviour of unstabilised earth masonry materials in a generally valid formulation. PB - Elsevier Ltd. KW - Earth block masonry KW - Load-bearing behaviour KW - Compressive strength KW - Moisture content KW - Sorption isotherm PY - 2022 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54949 AN - OPUS4-54949 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 342 IS - Part A SP - 1 EP - 15 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany