The material properties of an earthbag system using sand as fill material and polypropylene bags have been measured, and the strength of this system under compression and in a structural system has been tested. It was found that earthbag structures are resilient structures that undergo large deformations before collapse, and exhibit highly plastic behaviour. When working with unstabilised fill material, serviceability limit state is likely to govern design. In general, stabilised earthbags exhibit block-like behaviour at low stresses, and soil-like behave at stresses approaching peak stress. However, the precise dimensions of the blocks cannot be determined, which creates a level of uncertainty in the system and can generate higher than expected deformations, due to the irregularly shaped bag faces.
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