Thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior of Unstabilized Rammed Earth (URE) wall submitted to environmental and mechanical loadings

摘要

The thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior of Unstabilized Rammed Earth (URE) structures has been rarely studied in literature. This work proposes a theoretical framework for the coupled THM behavior of URE materials. Several analytical equations are first implemented in the numerical finite element code. Some existing literature experimental results for URE materials are then reproduced to validate the proposed theoretical framework. Next, the THM behavior of a typical URE wall built in two climate regions in France is investigated to evaluate its horizontal stress limit. The simulation results show that the material type plays an important role on the THM properties of the URE wall. Moreover, the drying process mainly takes place in the first year after construction. The average temperature inside the wall is not obviously influenced by the humidity and the fine content of the wall but by the environmental temperature variations. The horizontal strength increases rapidly up in the first year and then trends to reach an equilibrium stage with time. For the same fine content, the wall in a dryer climate condition has a slightly higher strength than those in a wetter climate condition.