TY - JOUR A1 - Wiehle, Philipp A1 - Simon, Sebastian A1 - Baier, J. A1 - Dennin, L. ED - Forde, M. T1 - Influence of relative humidity on the strength and stiffness of unstabilised earth blocks and earth masonry mortar 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. KW - Earth block masonry KW - Load-bearing behaviour KW - Compressive strength KW - Moisture content KW - Sorption isotherm PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.128026 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 342 IS - Part A SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-54949 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiehle, Philipp A1 - Härder, Michelle A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Quantification of moisture content in earth block masonry under natural climatic conditions N2 - The aim of this study is to accurately predict the moisture content in earth block masonry exposed to natural climatic conditions, which is a key factor in assessing its load-bearing capacity. Nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry and humidity sensor measurements were carried out to quantify the moisture content. In addition, a customised test setup was developed to determine the capillary water absorption of earth blocks. This approach takes into account the deceleration of water absorption due to the swelling of clay minerals and organic additives, which leads to realistic transport coefficients in the hygroscopic range. This allows the moisture content of earth block masonry to be predicted accurately. With regard to the moisture behaviour of typical exterior wall constructions in living spaces, it was found that the equilibrium moisture content in earth block masonry is always lower than 65 % relative humidity, which corresponds to the permissible limit of the recently published German design standard for load-bearing earth block masonry. KW - Earth block masonry KW - NMR relaxometry KW - Hygrothermal simulation KW - Load-bearing capacity KW - Moisture content KW - Embedded humidity sensors PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-623518 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.139513 VL - 459 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-62351 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiehle, Philipp A1 - Brinkmann, M. T1 - Material behaviour of unstabilised earth block masonry and its components under compression at varying relative humidity N2 - block and mortar types is analysed with particular regard to the influence of varying relative humidity. The uniaxial compressive strength and deformation characteristics of unstabilised earth blocks and mortars as well as of unstabilised earth block masonry are studied in detail and compared to conventional masonry to evaluate whether the structural design can be made accordingly. An increase of 30 % points in relative humidity leads to a reduction of the masonry´s compressive strength between 33 % and 35 % whereas the Young´s modulus is reduced by 24–29 %. However, the ratio between the Young´s modulus and the characteristic compressive strength of earth block masonry ranges between E33/fk = 283–583 but is largely independent of the relative humidity. The results show that the mechanical properties of the investigated unstabilised earth block masonry are sufficient for load-bearing structures, yielding a masonry compressive strength between 2.3 MPa and 3.7 MPa throughout the range of moisture contents investigated. In general, the design concept of conventional masonry can be adapted for unstabilised earth masonry provided that the rather low Young´s modulus as well as the moisture dependence of both, compressive strength and Young´s modulus, are sufficiently taken into account. KW - Compressive strength KW - Earth block masonry KW - Compression tests KW - Stress-strain relation KW - Relative humidity KW - Moisture content PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-562417 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01663 SN - 2214-5095 VL - 17 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Netherlands AN - OPUS4-56241 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiehle, Philipp A1 - Baier, Johanna A1 - Thiele, Marc T1 - Structural Design of Earth Masonry in Accordance with Eurocode 6 – Considering Moisture Content and E/fk Ratio N2 - The load‐bearing behaviour of earth masonry is similar to conventional masonry, with two key differences: compressive strength and Young's modulus are dependent on moisture content, and the ratio between Young's modulus and characteristic compressive strength (E/fk) is significantly lower. The current design concept according to the Lehmbau Regeln does not explicitly address these factors, relying instead on a general safety margin, leading to an underestimation of the load‐bearing capacity of modern earth masonry.Compression tests on small‐scale masonry specimens and storey‐high walls revealed that compressive strength and Young's modulus decrease inversely proportional to the increase in relative humidity. Additionally, it was found that conventional masonry design guidelines overestimate the buckling resistance of earth masonry due to its low E/fk ratio of ∼440. However, this ratio remains independent of moisture content, simplifying structural design, as the load‐bearing capacity is only influenced by wall slenderness.The study's findings form the foundation for the newly published German design standard DIN 18940, which explicitly considers moisture content through service classes with moisture factors and addresses the low E/fk ratio with a bilinear adaptation of the reduction factor considering the slenderness. Along with the introduction of the semi‐probabilistic design concept and rigid‐plastic determination of cross‐sectional load‐bearing capacity, modern earth masonry can now be applied in buildings up to four storeys. T2 - Earth Builder Summit CY - Biberach, Germany DA - 06.03.2025 KW - Service class KW - Earth masonry KW - Structural design KW - Moisture PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-637803 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/cepa.3287 SN - 2509-7075 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - 9 EP - 21 PB - Ernst & Sohn GmbH AN - OPUS4-63780 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Wiehle, Philipp T1 - Closure of "Quantification of moisture content in earth block masonry under natural climatic conditions" N2 - In January 2025, the research paper “Quantification of moisture content in earth block masonry under natural climatic conditions” was published in Construction and Building Materials. The central theme was the moisture monitoring of a masonry wall made of unstabilised earth blocks over a period of around 18 months. The experimental results were compared to WUFI simulations, and the moisture transport in layered wall constructions was eventually studied in WUFI. Prof. Janssen discussed this publication in Construction and Building Materials. He raised concerns about the experiments and modelling of moisture transport. In this closure, the capillary adsorption coefficient was recalculated, and deviations from the initial value were quantified. Sensitivity analyses were conducted in WUFI to evaluate the influence of different water vapour resistances and water adsorption coefficients. The resulting moisture transport was then compared to material moisture profiles measured using 1H NMR relaxometry. Finally, the water adsorption behaviour of different earth materials is discussed in respect to material moisture and corresponding relative humidity. KW - Earth masonry KW - Moisture transport KW - Capillary water absorption KW - Embedded humidity sensors KW - NMR KW - WUFI KW - Material moisture KW - Water vapour diffusion resistance KW - Sustainable building materials PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-637569 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2025.142552 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 491 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-63756 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Stolpe, Heiko A1 - Wiehle, Philipp T1 - Moisture diffusion affected by the Knudsen effect in temporal changing pore networks N2 - Almost all building materials in civil engineering have an open porosity and interact with or are affected by the environmental conditions. Structures might suffer from effects such as moisture adsorption, carbonation, corrosion, penetration of salt ions and chemical substances, etc. In the hygroscopic range, these processes are mostly driven by diffusion. Due to the confinement of small pores (less than1 µm), the Knudsen effect reduces the molecular diffusion. This reduction can become more significant in case of temporal changing pore systems because of physisorption of water vapor, carbonation, or chemisorption. In this study, unstabilised earth blocks and earth masonry are investigated. In a first step, the pore size distribution of the blocks is measured and sorption isotherms are recorded in experiments. Besides the ordinary physisorption, the involved clay minerals undergo swelling or shrinking due to chemisorption. The following two effects must be considered: first, the reduction of the available pore space by the adsorbed water layer. For this, the Hillerborg sorption theory is used, which is a combination of the well-known Brunauer-Emmett-Teller sorption theory and the Kelvin equation. This allows the computation of adsorbed water layers even in curved pore geometries. Second, the variation of the initial pore size distribution due to chemisorption needs to be modelled. Based on these two models, the effective diffusion coefficient can be predicted. For validation, arrays of relative humidity sensors were embedded into a free-standing earth masonry wall. This monitoring was carried out over more than a year to have a broad variety of environmental conditions and was located in Berlin, Germany. The prediction of the effective diffusion coefficient can also be transferred to other processes and allows the investigation of materials having temporarily changing pore systems. Examples are the carbonation of cementitious materials, alkali silica reaction, calcium leaching of long-lasting structures, etc. These effects are prominent in the meso-pore range and might significantly alter the effective diffusion coefficient. KW - Earth material KW - Material moisture KW - Physisoprtion KW - Chemisorption PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-583811 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.09.034 SN - 2214-7853 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam, Niederlande AN - OPUS4-58381 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brinkmann, M. A1 - Wiehle, Philipp T1 - Correlation between relative humidity and the strength and deformation characteristics of unstabilised earth masonry N2 - The mechanical properties of unstabilised earthen building materials are distinctively influenced by changes in material moisture content. However, this moisture-dependency often remains unconsidered in the calculation of the load-bearing capacity of earth constructions. This paper aims to derive a convenient way to sufficiently consider the impact of different material moisture contents on the mechanical properties of unstabilised earth masonry. Therefore, the influence of relative humidity and temperature on the strength and deformation characteristics of unstabilised earth blocks, earth mortar and earth masonry is evaluated by conducting compression tests under various climate conditions. The results show that the compressive strength and the modulus of elasticity are linearly correlated with the relative humidity, whereas changes in temperature at constant relative humidity have no significant influence. To account the distinct moisture-dependency, a general applicable modification factor for unstabilised earthen materials is provided, which enables the adjustment of the compressive strength and the modulus of elasticity in dependency of arbitrary hygroscopic material moisture contents. KW - Earth masonry KW - Earth blocks KW - Relative humidity KW - Modulus of elasticity KW - Moisture KW - Compressive strength KW - Stress–strain-relation PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.130048 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 366 IS - 22 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Elsevier BV AN - OPUS4-56732 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -