@article {620, title = {Earth concrete. Stabilization revisited}, journal = {Cement and Concrete Research}, volume = {114}, year = {2018}, month = {Dec-2018}, pages = {90 - 102}, abstract = {

Not surprisingly, with the increased awareness of environmental issues, construction with raw (crude, unbaked) earth (subsoil) is gaining renewed interest. However, it suffers from a poor image and from the difficulty to meet modern productivity standards and to pass some durability tests designed for industrial materials. The recent trend is to overcome these drawbacks by \“stabilizing\” the material most often with Portland cement (PC). Here we show that stabilization with PC is in general neither technically nor environmentally advisable. It brings only moderate mechanical improvement at a high environmental cost. Rather than massively transforming crude earth into a low quality concrete, it would be more appropriate to adapt the architectural practice and/or to look for milder ways to improve properties. In this respect, the recent successful attempts to improve the workability and the strength of raw earth by controlling the dispersion of its fine fraction seem to be particularly promising.

}, issn = {00088846}, doi = {10.1016/j.cemconres.2017.02.035}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0008884616308365}, author = {Henri Van Damme and Houben, Hugo} }