Mechanical behavior of compressed earth blocks for sustainable building construction in seismic areas – DYNATERRE

The transition to a circular economy by 2050 values the use of building materials that are more respectful of the planet. It is in this context that the interest for new construction in earth masonry is increasing, justified by its low environmental impact and by the desire to keep the memory of local building typologies for landscape insertion and the tourist attractiveness of territories. The use of earth masonry as construction material remains limited by the difficulty of correctly evaluating the performance of the load-bearing structure under dynamic action, which can be prohibitive for questions of technical certification and insurability of a new construction in seismic zones. The goal of DYNATERRE project is to design specific test devices to obtain a better mechanical knowledge of earth masonry, to optimize the construction material conception and production improving thermo-hydro-mechanical properties, but also paying attention to environmental goals, and to understand the influence of conception choices on a set of parameters used to characterize the material behavior in building modeling for seismic design in accordance with the Eurocodes. The project is developed following a progression of knowledge of the structural response of masonry buildings at different scales: starting from the scale of raw materials, then of the composite material, going towards the structural element, to arrive at the global response of the building. The research institutes, partners of the project, have complementary skills on numerical and experimental approaches and they have been involving for several years in the development of geo-sourced masonry construction, in collaboration with the partner companies.