Fracture behavior of rammed earth in historic buildings Arto Torres, Ignacio Gallego Sevilla, Rafael Cifuentes Bulte, Hector Puertas García, María Esther Gutiérrez Carrillo, María Lourdes Universidad de Granada. Grupo de investigación TEP167 Rammed earth Fracture behavior Ultrasonic test Historical structures This study is part of the project ‘‘Revalorización Estructural del Patrimonio Arquitectónico de Tapial en Andalucía” (Structural Revaluation of the Rammed Earth Architectural Heritage in Andalusia), ref. A-TEP-182-UGR18, within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund Programme of Andalucía 2014-2020), and the Research Group TEP167 Solid and Structural Mechanics. The authors has received additional support from the project PREFORTI (BIA2015 69938-R) entitled ‘‘Metodología sostenible de conservación y mantenimiento de fortificaciones medievales de tierra del sudeste de la Península Ibérica. diagnóstico y prevención ante riesgos naturales y antrópicos” (”Sustainable methodology for the conservation and maintenance of mediaeval rammed-earth fortifications in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Diagnosis and prevention against natural and anthropic risks”), financed by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish National Research Agency) and the European Regional Development Fund. Rammed earth is the construction system of many heritage structures and buildings in different regions of the planet, some of which are seismically active areas. For this reason, these historic buildings can sustain structural damage or have already been subjected to stresses that have led to high levels of cracking in the rammed earth walls. Therefore, knowledge of the fracture behavior of this material is essential to assess the actual state of structural safety and the remaining mechanical capacity. The number of studies on the fracture behavior of rammed earth is limited, and even fewer studies have considered lime as a stabilizer and used traditional materials. This study measured the density, ultrasonic pulse velocity, fracture energy and tensile strength of prismatic specimens with two different soil: lime dosages and found relationships between the different parameters analyzed and the dosages used. Finally, it was verified that the fracture behavior of rammed earth can be assumed to be similar to that of mass concrete from a qualitative standpoint. For this reason, rammed earth could be considered as a quasi-brittle material that follows Hillerborg's discrete crack model. 2024-01-23T13:31:10Z 2024-01-23T13:31:10Z 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Published version: Ignacio Arto, Rafael Gallego, Héctor Cifuentes, Esther Puertas, M.L. Gutiérrez-Carrillo, Fracture behavior of rammed earth in historic buildings, Construction and Building Materials, Volume 289, 2021, 123167, ISSN 0950-0618, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123167 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/87169 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123167 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier