Rammed earth walls in Mediterranean climate: material characterization and thermal behaviour

Susana Serrano, Lídia Rincón, Belen González, Antonia Navarro, Montserrat Bosch and Luisa F. Cabeza

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 2017, vol. 12, issue 3, 281-288

Abstract: Rammed earth is considered a very sustainable construction system due to its low embodied energy, long service life and high recyclability. However, authors found that there is a lack of experimental results at real scale regarding rammed earth thermal behaviour. For this reason, this paper is first focused on the characterization of two different types of earth in order to check the suitability of being used in rammed earth walls. After the characterization, two experimental cubicle-shape buildings were built in Barcelona and Puigverd de Lleida (Spain) in order to test the thermal behaviour of their walls in two different climatic conditions. Temperature profiles inside walls have been monitored using thermocouples and temperature profile of southern walls was analysed in free floating conditions during summer and winter periods of 2013. Results show that thermal amplitude from outside to inside temperatures are decreased by rammed earth walls, achieving constant temperatures in inner surface of southern walls.

Keywords: sustainable; earth building; experimental set-up; low embodied energy materials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ijlctc:v:12:y:2017:i:3:p:281-288.

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