Behaviour of plain and fibre reinforced cement stabilised rammed earth under compression, tension and shear

Cement stabilised rammed earth (CSRE) is used for load-bearing walls in buildings and other structures. There is an upsurge in interest for using CSRE constructions worldwide in the last six to seven decades. The CSRE wall elements in a structure undergo sudden catastrophic shear failures under the compression and shear loadings and exhibit brittle flexure failures under out of plane bending. The brittle failures should be avoided in the structural wall elements. The limited studies on the fibre reinforced CSRE reveal that the addition of fibres can enhance the material's mechanical properties and help prevent sudden catastrophic failures. However, the studies on the fibre reinforced CSRE are still in nascent stage. The behaviour of fibre reinforced CSRE under different loading con-ditions remains an unexplored area. The present study attempted to understand the behaviour of fibre reinforced CSRE under compression, tension, and shear. The investigations revealed that the addition of short coir fibres significantly increases the failure strains and the energy absorption capacity of CSRE under compression and in -plane shear, eliminating the sudden catastrophic shear failures observed in the plain CSRE. The coir fibre in-clusion, although partially increases the compression and the shear strength of CSRE, it significantly enhances the splitting tensile strength and post peak response.

Automated summary

Cement stabilised rammed earth (CSRE) is a load-bearing wall material used in buildings and structures, with increasing interest worldwide. The addition of short coir fibres in CSRE significantly improves its mechanical properties, such as failure strains, energy absorption capacity, and splitting tensile strength, and helps prevent sudden catastrophic failures.