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 U6 - 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 - 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 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-562417 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 -