TY - JOUR A1 - Miccoli, Lorenzo A1 - Müller, U. A1 - Pospisil, S. T1 - Rammed earth walls strengthened with polyester fabric strips: Experimental analysis under in-plane cyclic loading N2 - This study analyses the mechanical behaviour under pseudo-dynamic loading of structural elements built in rammed earth and strengthened with polyester fabric strips. This strengthening technique was developed to exploit the strength potential of rammed earth and to solve its lack of tensile strength. For this reason, in-plane cyclic tests were carried out to investigate the shear behaviour of unstrengthened and strengthened walls. The strengthening technique requires low-tech equipment and workmanship, uses readily available, not expensive and industrially standardised materials. The experimental results were analysed in terms of stiffness degradation, energy dissipation capacity and equivalent viscous damping. Although the unstrengthened and strengthened walls confirmed a limited ductile behaviour, the findings confirm that the strengthening contributes to limit the spread of the diagonal cracks and provide an increase of strength in terms of horizontal load and displacement capacity. KW - Rammed earth KW - Pseudo-dynamic loads KW - Shear-compression tests KW - Strengthening KW - Polyester fabric strips PY - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.05.115 IS - 149 SP - 29 EP - 36 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-40497 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Miccoli, Lorenzo A1 - Müller, U. A1 - Fontana, Patrick ED - Mazzolani, F. M. ED - Lamas, A. ED - Calado, L. ED - Proenca, J. M. ED - Faggiano, B. T1 - Strengthening of rammed earth structural elements. Mechanical behaviour under shear and cyclic loading N2 - An experimental investigation was carried out to study the in-plane shear behaviour of rammed earth structural elements strengthened with polyester fabric strips. The original idea for the retrofitting with polyester fabric strips was to introduce a vertical element for walls in order to take up horizontal loads resulting in a shear response of the building element. It has to be considered that vertical slits into the walls for fixing the strips are points of weakness and have to be mitigated by the adhesive. In this case a base coat mortar was employed. Strengthened elements were tested to exploit the strength potential of earthen materials and to solve its lack of tensile strength, significantly improving not only strength but also ductility. As part of the study results of a testing campaign of unstrengthened structural elements were considered. Strengthened elements were tested in diagonal compression/shear and cyclic shear-compression. A unique reinforcement orientation was used. The results of these tests are presented in this paper and include the load-displacement behaviours, crack patterns, failure modes. The results showed that the reinforcement was the most effective under cyclic shear-compression tests, with increase in load and displacement capacity observed. Under diagonal compression the reinforcement did not likely contribute significantly to the shear resistance, due to a lack of embedment length of the strips. T2 - 3rd International Conference on Protection of Historical Constructions (PROHITECH 2017) CY - Lisbon, Portugal DA - 12.07.2017 KW - Rammed earth KW - Diagonal compression tests KW - Shear-compression tests KW - Strengthening KW - Polyester fabric strips PY - 2017 SN - 978-989-8481-58-0 SP - 157 EP - 158 PB - IST-Press AN - OPUS4-41263 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -