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- Compressive strength (1)
- Earth block masonry (1)
- Safety factors (1)
- historical earthen building (1)
- material characterisation (1)
- rammed earth (1)
- static monitoring (1)
This study presents diagnostic techniques to assess the structural vulnerability of earthen buildings. Medieval structures at Ambel (near Zaragoza, Spain), once a preceptory or monastic house belonging to the Military Orders, provide a useful case study. After more than a thousand years of construction, failure and repair from the 10th century to the present day, Ambel preceptory today is characterised by marked inhomogeneities: construction materials and structural typologies are juxtaposed, with structural discontinuities at the interfaces between construction phases. This paper argues that, while static analysis is an essential prerequisite before a suitable maintenance program can be defined, no evaluation of the structural behaviour of any historic building can ignore an understanding of the building’s history.
In the beginning of the 1980s earth building has undergone a renaissance, which nowadays leads to an increasing use of load-bearing earth constructions and in particular, earth block masonry. At present, there are no common structural standards according to the semi-probabilistic design concept, which is the state-of-the-art in European standards.
A solid database is needed for the determination of the partial safety factor on the resistance side. Therefore, compressive strength tests were carried out with two types of earth blocks and two types of prefabricated earth mortar. The evaluation showed that the variation of the compressive strength was remarkably less than expected, which seems to indicate high quality standards of the components earth block and mortar with regard to industrial production.
On the basis of these results and together with the reliability method, a partial safety factor for earth block masonry subjected to compression was determined. The main aim of the research was the development of a first valid database for material parameters of earth block masonry with particular regard to statistical characteristics. The results showed that a common calculation method for earth block masonry based on partial safety factors following the valid masonry construction standard is feasible.
