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IJSCER 2022 Vol.11(1): 10-13
doi: 10.18178/ijscer.11.1.10-13

Effect of Moisture Content on the Compressive strength of a Local Rammed Earth Construction Material

Omar M. Alsudays, Omar M. Alawad, and Sherif M. Elkholy
Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia

Manuscript received October 4, 2021; revised November 1, 2021; accepted December 11, 2021; issue published January 7, 2022.

Abstract— Finding sustainable and economical materials for building construction is a vital topic recently due to the negative effects of some current construction materials on the environment and also its relatively high cost. Local materials can be considered as a suitable alternative for building construction materials to minimize the environmental impacts. For example, rammed earth construction type uses local materials which typically consist of a mixture of gravel, sand, clay, and silt. Cement can be added with low fractions as a stabilizer and to improve the mechanical properties of rammed earth, such as compressive strength. This study focuses on assessing the moisture content effect on the compressive strength of the cement stabilized local rammed earth materials. A number of samples with various moisture content, i.e. 4%, 6%, 10%, and 14% were established and examined using a universal test machine in this study. The moisture content is found to significantly affect the compressive strength of the stabilized rammed earth local materials. Samples with 10% moisture content reached the highest compressive strength (average is 4 MPa) compared with others. Samples with 4% moisture content have the least compressive strength, i.e. average is 1.97 MPa. 

Index Terms—rammed earth, alternative construction materials, cement stabilized rammed earth, sustainable building material

Cite: Omar M. Alsudays, Omar M. Alawad, and Sherif M. Elkholy, "Effect of Moisture Content on the Compressive strength of a Local Rammed Earth Construction Material," International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 10-13, February 2022. doi: 10.18178/ijscer.11.1.10-13

Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.