Application of Earth and Straw Mixtures in Modern Building

Abstract

SUMMARY:Building with earth is widespread and still mostly based on traditional experiences. Increasing demands in energy consumption reduction during the construction and exploitation of buildings put more and more in the focus the good features of houses built with earth.Testing of earth mixtures with other natural materials showed that it can get even a quality of bricks, which indicates the lack of appropriate standards for this type of construction.Testing are performed with mixes of earth and straw intended forrammed earth and adobe construction. This method of preparation and construction applies in alternate construction with straw bales and it is also used in the construction of prefabricated panels with wooden frame filled with a mixture earth and straw where it is possible to build prefabricated structures or as a filling of wall screens in skeletal structural system of larger dimensions and number of floors.Laboratory tests have shown that the mechanical and thermal properties of this material fulfilled the high demands for the construction of modern buildings. Based on the presented results it can proceed the development and testing of structural elements for that kind of building.Also, based on results, in the article the authors presented possibilities of architectural design of various building possibilities of objects, as practical examples of prefabrication applied in some countries.

Energy Sustainability of Rammed Earth Buildings

“…Our earlier studies already showed that light-clay materials can have good mechanical characteristic [10,12].The calculation of the average energy consumption for heating per annum for the average design temperature is given in the Table 7. Comparative analysis showed the variation in features between the rammed earth walls and sandwich wall with several layers of materials including a layer with enhanced thermal insulation characteristics.…”

“…The wetting of the exposed walls by atmospheric precipitation should only be avoided during construction (until the roof, eaves, insulation plinths, etc. are finished), although recent studies showed that slight increase in moisture content of dry rammed-earth walls will not affect the compressive strength significantly [9,10,11,12,13].…”

“…A building of the same surface area made of rammed earth construction, using light-clay, which is a combination of clay and straw, woodchips or some other lighter material with density of 900 kg/m 3 to obtain a thermal conductivity of 0,3 [10,18]. Our earlier studies already showed that light-clay materials can have good mechanical characteristic [10,12].The calculation of the average energy consumption for heating per annum for the average design temperature is given in the Table 7.…”