EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20

How mud bricks work using unsaturated soil mechanics principles to explain the material properties of earth buildings. Paul Jaquin

Across the world, soil is piled , shaped, formed into bricks or compacted between forms, to make solid walls. One third of the worlds population live in buildings constructed from soil. Although many other building material are now available, soil remains one of the most ubiquitous construction materials on the planet. While often seen as the preserve of the developing world (and many view the move away from earth buildings as a step forward in development), earth is becoming increasingly popular as a modern, chic, green building material. The scientific understanding of earth buildings is relatively low when compared to steel or concrete. Traditional construction uses heuristic and locally developed techniques. While these methods work well locally, they are dependent on the local soil and construction techniques which makes technology transfer between different regions difficult. In the last 30 years there has been a drive to better understand earthen construction. Practitioners such as Gernot Minke, Hugo Houben and Satprem Maini have performed many experiments to improve construction techniques and refine raw material to improve the performance of earth buildings. These initiatives are relatively poorly documented and more rigorous scientific method has only been only recently introduced. Work undertaken at Durham University has used the principles of unsaturated soil mechanics to better understand the engineering properties of earth buildings. Unsaturated soil mechanics considers the behaviour of soil where the pores are filled with both air and water. In addition to friction and interlock, water is held in tension between the soil particles in the form of liquid bridges. These liquid bridges act as a bond giving the soil additional strength and stiffness over that of a fully saturated soil. This paper will describe some aspects of research carried out as part of a PhD at Durham University. Some of the principles of unsaturated soil mechanics, such as surface tension, relative humidity and the attractive force between particles are outlined. Arguments for using the principles of unsaturated soil mechanics to describe earth buildings are discussed. A series of experiments to test this notion were devised. These experiments are described and the results are discussed. The wider implications of considering earth buildings as highly unsaturated soils are then presented and conclusions drawn as to how to understand their engineering specification, construction and behaviour. Unsaturated soil mechanics principles In an unsaturated soil, water is held between soil particles by surface tension. Surface tension exists in all fluids. At a vapour to liquid interface there is a difference in pressure between the liquid and the vapour. As the vapour pressure is greater than the liquid pressure, there is an unsymmetrical force balance at the interface. The interface (meniscus) must compensate for the difference in the two pressures and behaves as a membrane acting in uniform tension. Water Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20 held between two soil particles within such menisci and is known as a liquid bridge. The combined tension of this membrane and the lower pressure of the water provides an attractive force between the soil particles (Fisher 1926) as described by Figure 1 and Equation 1.

F = Fmensicus + Fpressure

F = rneck 2 T + rneck ( ua uw )
EQUATION 1 MAGNITUDE OF THE ATTRACTIVE FORCE BETWEEN SOIL PARTICLES AS A RESULT OF THE LIQUID BRIDGE Where Fmensicus is the attractive force due to the meniscus and Fpressure is the attractive force caused by the difference in pressure between the air and the water, rneck is the radius of the neck of the liquid bridge, T is the surface tension and ua and uw are the air and water pressure respectively. Relative humidity is the ratio between the actual vapour pressure in the air and the maximum possible vapour pressure. There is a unique relationship between water tension and relative humidity which was first described by Lord Kelvin (Thomson 1871). The origins of strength in earthen materials have long been the cause of much debate. An authoritative textbook on the subject (Houben and Guillaud 1994) and state of the art review (Avrami and Guillaud 2008) describes the strength as being a result of electrostatic forces, cementation, capillarity and friction. It has been argued (Jaquin 2008) that although electrostatic forces can be used to describe the attraction between clay platelets, the magnitude of attractive forces between larger particles must be a result of the liquid bridges between the particles, in addition to the interparticle friction and interlock. It was proposed that the number and strength of these bridges determines the overall samples strength and stiffness. The number of liquid bridges depends on the number of pores in the soil across which they can act. At a high negative pore water pressure, liquid bridges act across the majority of pores in a soil sample, resulting in a highly bonded, therefore stronger sample. At low negative pore water pressures, there are fewer liquid bridges which leads to lower sample strength. Experimentation A small series of simple tests were proposed to investigate the link between the strength of earth buildings and the pore water pressure. The experiments used probes to measure the magnitude of the negative pore water pressure (tension) called tensiometers (Loureno, Gallipoli et al. 2008). Soil cylinders were constructed using methods based on the light Proctor method developed at the University (Horncastle 2006). Soil was oven dried at 105C, before being mixed with a known volume of water to create a mix of known water content. The mixture was bagged and left for 7 days to allow the moisture content to Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20 equalise. To make a sample this mixture was sequentially compacted in five layers of equal mass, with each layer receiving 25 blows from the Proctor hammer. The final layer was a fine screed of particles smaller than 425m. This layer provided a flat surface against which a tensiometer was placed and which was used for loading. The cylinders were then placed on a mass balance, and the mass noted while the cylinders air dried. On reaching a specified mass, and therefore water content, the cylinders were wrapped in a rubber triaixal sleeve and sealed to prevent further evaporation. The cylinders were left for at least 7 days prior to testing to allow water to distribute evenly within the samples. The samples were tested in unconfined compression, in a rig shown in Figure 16. Tensiometers were placed against the top surface of the cylinder, through the loading platen to measure the change in pore water pressure during the loading. The axial strain and load were measured. Following failure the whole sample was weighed and placed in the oven to determine the final water content. Results The sample cylinders were prepared at a known water content of 12%, and different samples allowed to air dry to different water contents. Figure 17 shows the results of unconfined compression tests carried out on samples at water contents ranging from 10.2 to 5.5%. Samples with a high initial water content have a low negative pore water pressure, whereas samples with a lower initial water content have a higher negative pore water pressure. On loading of the samples (increasing deviator stress) the three highest water content samples (10.2, 9.4 and 8.4%) show an increase in pore water pressure, whereas the lower water content samples show a reduction in pore water pressure. The peak deviator stress (sample strength) increases from 170kPa to 600kPa with the water content reducing from 10.2 to 5.5%. Lower water content samples were tested, but these proved to have a negative pore water pressure beyond the range of the tensiometers (-1500kPa). Figure 18 shows the peak deviator stress versus water content. It comprises those samples shown in Figure 17 and further experimentation on samples of lower water content, where the negative pore water pressure was beyond the range of the tensiometers. This shows a linear relationship between water content and sample strength. showing the strength reducing from a peak of 1100kPa at a water content of 2% to a minimum of 100kPa at water contents close to those of compaction (12%). Interpretation The change in suction on loading of unsaturated soil samples has been observed by a number of other researchers (for example Cunningham, Ridley et al. 2003; Tarantino 2007). To explain this behaviour the dilatancy of the sample must be considered, as must the fact that water considered as incompressible compared to air. If unconfined loading of a fully saturated soil sample is considered, pore water pressure would reduce (become more negative) if the sample were to dilate. The dilatant behaviour of the whole soil sample causes an increase in the total pore volume. As the sample is not drained, no water is lost, so the same volume of water occupies a larger pore volume so its pressure is reduced. This behaviour may be observed for the high water content samples (10.2 and Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20 9.4%). The lower water content samples (7.2 to 5.5%) show an increase in pore water pressure, which may be attributed to a mean contractant behaviour of the sample. This is caused by a reduction in volume of the air filled pores. The water filled pores are effectively rigid when compared to the much more compressible air filled pores. Increased loading of the water filled pores causes an increase in the pore water pressure which is measure by the tensiometers as a reduction in negative pore water pressure. This concept is shown diagrammatic in Figure 19. It has been argued (Jaquin 2008) that the mean pore size, described by the Air Entry Value (AEV) of the soil is the point about which this change occurs. At this point all of the pore are water filled but the pore water pressure of the whole sample is still negative. Implications Water in earthen structures There is a small but finite volume of water present in the form of liquid bridges between soil particles in earth structures when air dry. This water is under tension and the magnitude of the pore water pressure (suction) is related to the relative humidity of the surrounding air. Evaporation of water from unsaturated soils has been shown to be proportional to the suction (Wilson, Barbour et al. 1995). Jaquin 2008 argued that this evaporation will continue from the earth structure until the relative humidity of the pore air is equal to the humidity of the surrounding air. The strength and stiffness of earth structures, and therefore their inherent viability is a function of the mean relative humidity of a region. It can be shown that the international distribution of earth buildings maps very well to regions where the mean surface relative humidity is low. Earth structures are not renowned for their resistance to water, and especially in the UK this is seen as a reason to not use them. However, improved understanding of their behaviour in the presence of water may be this to change in the future. Rainfall again the surface of an earth wall will not lead to degradation of the face for the wall or to the collapse of the structure. If one considers a sheet of water against the face of a wall for example where a drain is leaking water against the face, water will be drawn into the wall through capillary action. The volume and speed of infiltration by capillary action can be described by Washburns equation (Washburn 1921) if the diameter of the capillary is known. The diameter of the capillary can be considered as the mean pore size for the soil. The rate of advancement of water though a capillary tube of diameter 0.002mm (the size of a the smallest silt particle) is around 12mm per hour. Ahead of the wetting from in the capillary tube there will be a region of increased relative humidity, where the liquid bridges will increase in size and reduce in strength, causing a gradual loss of strength and stiffness. Where water does advance into an earth wall through capillary action, the soil particles surround the pore through which the water is advancing lose the attractive force between them and s oil is locally saturated and will slump to its internal friction angle. If the walls are well protected to prevent rainwater ponding on the tops surface, and there is a sufficient overhang to stop rainwater draining from the roof and impacting the wall, then the integrity of the wall should be maintained.

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20 Cement stabilisation In many parts of the developing world, cement is added to earth bricks to improve their durability and strength (for example Maini 2007). The majority of research into cement stabilisation has been heuristic and the reasons for successful or unsuccessful experiments have not been effectively probed. An understanding of the behaviour of water in earth structures allows a better comprehension of how the cementing reaction continues within earth bricks. Many studies (for example as outlined in Minke 2007, Houben and Guillaud 1994) have shown that the strength of mud brick buildings increases with increasing cement content up to a critical cement content, beyond which the strength reduces with increasing cement content. The reasons for this peak cement content have previously been unclear. (Jaquin 2008) argues that there are two aspects competing for the water within the earth structure. These are the cement reaction, which requires water to form the cementing products, and the formation of liquid bridges which are a result of the relative humidity of the surrounding air. As a result of evaporation of water from the cement stabilised sample, there is insufficient water to form the cementing products, leaving unreacted cement powder within the bricks, which do not contribute to strength. Any increase in volume of cement within a brick will not lead to an increase in strength because there is insufficient water with which to form a cementing matrix. Conclusions This paper has shown that one of the main reasons for the mechanical behaviour of earthen building materials is the presence of liquid bridges between the soil particles. The unconfined compressive strength has been investigated and it has been argued that the mechanical properties are a result of the number and strength of liquid bridges within a sample. Further investigation (detailed in Jaquin, Augarde et al. 2007; Jaquin 2008; Jaquin, Augarde et al. 2008) shows that other mechanical properties such as the stiffness are also related the pore water pressure. It has been shown that the behaviour of water within an earthen structure may be better explained by considering the material as a highly unsaturated soil and that this approach may also be useful in explaining the mechanical behaviour of cement stabilised earth bricks.

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20

FIGURE 15 ATTRACTIVE FORCE BETWEEN SOIL PARTICLES CAUSED BY SURFACE TENSION

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20

FIGURE 16 UNCONFINED COMPRESSION TESTING RIG

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20
700 600 500 Deviator stress (kPa) 7.1 400 8.4 300 8.6 200 10.2 9.4 100 0 0 -100 -200 -300 -400 -500 Pore water pressure (kPa) -600 -700 -800 7.2 5.5

FIGURE 17 DEVIATOR STRESS - PORE WATER PRESSURE RESULTS

0.12

0.10 Water content (m3/m3)

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0.00 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 Deviator stress at failure (kPa)

FIGURE 18 WATER CONTENT - STRENGTH RELATIONSHIP

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20
All pores water filled Sample dilating Acting as a saturated sample Reduction in pore water pressure Air filled pores compressing Water filled pores effectively rigid Increase in pore water pressure

Failure of sample

AEV All pores water filled, mensici at sample surface

Initial suction

Suction

FIGURE 19 IDEALISED STRENGTH - WATER PRESSURE BEHAVIOUR

References Avrami, E. and Guillaud, H. 2008. Terra Literature Review: An Overview of Research in Earthen Architecture. Los Angeles, The Getty Conservation Institute. Cunningham, M. R., Ridley, A. M., Dineen, K. and Burland, J. B. 2003. The mechanical behaviour of a reconstituted unsaturated silty clay. Geotechnique 53(2): 183-194. Fisher, R. A. 1926. On the capillary forces in an ideal soil: Correction of Formulae given by W.B.Haines. Journal of Agricultural Science 16: 492505. Horncastle, T. 2006 Rammed earth construction. School of Engineering. Durham. MEng. Houben, H. and Guillaud, H. 1994. Earthen Architecture: A comprehensive guide. London, UK, Intermediate Technology Development Group. Jaquin, P. 2008 Analysis of historic rammed earth construction. School of Engineering. University of Durham. PhD. Jaquin, P., Augarde, C. and Legrande, L. 2007. Unsaturated characteristics of rammed earth. E-UNSAT. First European Conference on Unsaturated Soils, Durham, UK, In press. Jaquin, P., Augarde, C., Toll, D. G. and Gallipoli, D. 2008. The strength of rammed earth materials. Geotechnique Under review. Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)

EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering February 20 Loureno, S. D. N., Gallipoli, D., Augarde, C. E., Toll, D. G. and F., E. 2008. Calibrations of a high suction tensiometer. Geotechnique 58(8): 659-668. Maini, S. 2007. Earthen Architecture and Stabilised Earth Techniques in Auroville, India. International Symposium on Earthen Structures, Bangalore, Interline Publishing. Minke, G. 2007. Building with earth - 30 years of research and development at the University of Kassel. International Symposium on Earthen Structures, Bangalore, Interline Publishing. Tarantino, A. 2007. A possible critical state framework for unsaturated compacted soils. Geotechnique 57(4): 385-389. Thomson, W. T. 1871. On the Equilibrium of Vapour at a Curved Surface of a Liquid. Phil. Mag. 42(282). Washburn, E. W. 1921. The Dynamics of Capillary Flow. Physical Review 17(3): 273. Wilson, G. W., Barbour, S. L. and Fredlund, D. G. 1995. The prediction of evaportative fluxes from unsaturated soil surfaces. Unsaturated Soils/Soil Non Satures, Paris, France, A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.

Community of Practice: Habitat Author: Paul Jaquin Institution: Ramboll Whitbybird (formerly Durham University) Previously published: (Geotechnique, February 2009)