Modern earth masonry: Structural properties and structural design

Andrew Heath, Daniel Maskell, Pete Walker, Mike Lawrence, Clyde Fourie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (SciVal)
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Abstract

There has been recent increased use of earth for construction of buildings in developed countries, largely because of concerns with the environmental impact and embodied carbon from fi red bricks and cement-based products. Of all forms of earth construction, the widest impact on modern construction is likely to come from commercially produced unfi red earth masonry where large-scale production can signifi cantly reduce costs. While there are benefi ts to using earth masonry, structural design with earth masonry raises some specifi c issues that are not necessarily relevant to other forms of masonry construction. This paper summarises these issues and presents results of extensive structural testing on modern earth masonry. The structural properties required for design are compared with typical values for other masonry types in Eurocode 6, showing that commercially produced earth masonry can meet or even exceed the structural capacity of other commonly used masonry systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)38-44
Number of pages7
JournalThe Structural Engineer
Volume90
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 30 Apr 2012

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