INVESTIGATION OF LOCAL RED SOIL FOR
RAMMED EARTH CONSTRUCTION
35 Ashish Kale 71 Ritesh Jain
60 Nikhil Agrawal 81 Shubham Gupta
61 Pankaj Gaidhane
INDEX
Introduction Compaction
Advantages Stabilisation
Material characteristics and Literature Review
soil selection
Soil Prepration
Formwork
INTRODUCTION
Rammed earth walls are formed by compacting damp soil
between temporary forms.
unbaked earthen construction, has a long and continued
history throughout many regions of the world.
INTRODUCTION
Major centres China
of rammed
earth France
construction
include : Germany
North Africa Spain
Australia India
North and Canada
South
America
INTRODUCTION
Throughout the nineteenth century a significant number of
rammed earth and rammed chalk buildings were built
However, it is the revival over the past 10 or so years that has
led to this project of rammed earth construction.
The project comprises a study of the current state of the art of
rammed earth construction as published in many books,
journal and conference papers, scientific reports and other
articles
ADVANTAGES
• Low carbon
• Natural product
• Excellent thermal and bioclimatic properties
• Cheap
• Low maintenance cost
• widely available
• sustainable resource.
• Minimal environmental impact
• has a high thermal mass; it can absorb heat during the day and release it at night.
This moderates daily temperature variations and reduces the need for air conditioning
and heating
AIM OF PROJECT
• The main goal of this project is to check whether the soil available
can be used in rammed earth technique or not
• To determine the best suitable proportions of additives that can be
used rammed earth
MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND SOIL SELECTION
The use of appropriate soil is key to the success of rammed
earth
Non-Swelling soil having low plasticity characteristics are
preferred
Parameters, such as strength and erosion resistance, govern
soil selection
Red colour soils are often preferred
Gradation of soil is an important feature of rammed earth
MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND SOIL SELECTION
Tests to be conducted to check suitability of rammed earth
Selection Criteria of Soil for rammed earth:
Colour
Particle Size Distribution
• Plasticity
Dry Density
Unconfined Compressive Strength
Cube compressive Strength
Weathered test
MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND SOIL SELECTION
Organic matter content should be avoided, as this may lead to
high shrinkage and possible biodeterioration as well as
increasing susceptibility to insect attack.
Organic material also interferes with action of stabilizers such
as cement
In order to increase the mechanical strength and weathering
resistance of soil it is advantageous to minimise the voids
ratio in order to increase the contact between soil particles
MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND SOIL SELECTION
Ideally the soil should have a high sand/gravel content, with
some silt and just enough clay to act as a binder and assist soil
compaction
Those soils which contain water-soluble salts to an extent which
will impair the strength
In summary soils suitable for rammed earth houses are broad
and include sands with sufficient clay and silt, clayey silts,
clayey gravels and gravel-sand-clay mixtures
SOIL PREPARATION STEPS
Excavation
Screening
Pulverisation
Mixing
Compaction
EXCAVATION
There are no special requirements when excavating soil for
rammed earth construction. Mechanical equipment such as
excavators, bulldozers, angle dozers and scrapers can be
used for excavation of large volumes of earth.
Soil for rammed earth should not include significant levels of
organic matter content. Topsoils should be removed and
stored for future landscaping, if required.
SCREENING
Soils imported from a local quarry may be provided screened
to pass a specified maximum size.
Soil excavated in-situ or provided un-sieved can be screen
sieved on site during preparation prior to mixing.
Coarse sieving can be achieved by removing the largest
particles manually, usually suitable for those particles having
diameter greater than 50mm
PULVERISATION
Pulverization, the breaking down of cohesive aggregations of
soil, is by no-means always essential.
It is usually required for dry clayey or chalky soils that contain
hard lumps that need to be broken down effectively before
blending with sand or other additives and prior to wetting,
mixing and ramming
Pulverization can be simply achieved by passing the
pneumatic rammer over soil prior to mixing
MIXING
Mixing is the most essential operation to ensure homogeneity of the soil used
There are several different methods of achieving uniform mix on site such as :
using rotating-drum
forced action mortar
slurry mixers
portable concrete batch plants
garden cultivators
FORMWORK
When making a choice of formwork the following general criteria should be kept in mind:
Strength
Stiffness
durability
adaptability
ease of handling
ease of alignment
ease of compaction
COMPACTION
In rammed earth loose soil is
compacted in layers between
temporary forms.
Traditionally this was undertaken
manually, but over the past 50+
years has been replaced by
pneumatic, vibrating plate and
sheep’s foot roller compactors .
SOIL STABILISATION
Soil stabilization comprises a variety, and often combination,
of modification processes to improve soil properties, including
strength and resistance to water.
In addition to compaction, an inherent element of rammed
earth construction that seeks to maximise material density,
stabilizing additives can be combined with the natural soil
LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
