Adobe materials for structural walls

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Adobe construction is becoming popular in the American Southwest, but has always been a critical construction type in many parts of the world. When military personnel move into an area, they often will temporarily occupy housing that is made out of adobe; therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics, both positive and negative, of such materials and building systems. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to characterize the mechanical properties of adobe to be able to model its response as a material type in structural elements. In collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an experimental program has been created to conduct material and structural element testing in order to evaluate adobe construction abroad, as well as develop and evaluate possible blast retrofit designs. In this thesis, an overview of adobe blocks and adobe construction, experimental setups and configurations, and future work will be discussed. This includes material testing for shear, compression, and rupture properties and wallette elements undergoing four-point bending. Ninety-four mortar cubes of varying material makeup, age, and drying environments were tested in compression. It was found that controlled drying conditions and the addition of asphalt emulsifier had the most significant effect for compressive strength. Twelve adobe bricks of varying size were tested in compression. Specimens with the largest bearing areas had the highest compressive strengths. Adobe bricks and components tested in shear and rupture conditions exposed the weaknesses of adobe materials. Wallette adobe systems that were tested in four-point bending showed that the failure of an adobe structure is significantly related to the stability of an element. In addition, measured mechanical properties were used in a preliminary finite element model and compared to the experimental results of the single wythe wallette.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil and environmental engineering (MU)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Missouri--Columbia

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Bade, Scott Charles

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Salim, Hani A., 1966-

Statement dc:rights

• Access to files is limited to the University of Missouri--Columbia with SSO login.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/45784

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/45784