Mechanical characterization of adobe bricks

The mechanical characterization of adobe bricks is an important first step in the study of the behaviour of adobe masonry. For this reason, in the last decades, different authors have conducted research on the mechanical behaviour of adobes from various regions of the world. Despite the importance of mechanical characterization, there are still only a few standards and normative documents with clear indications for the mechanical testing of earthen materials and, in general, these indications are not thorough and vary among different countries. Consequently, authors tend to adopt different types of test specimens and procedures in their experimental work, thus obtaining results that are not directly comparable. The fact that the materials and procedures traditionally used are also not standardized, varying greatly from region to region, also contributes to the difficulty of comparing results from different studies. This chapter presents a review of the indications provided by codes, standards and other technical recommendations for the mechanical testing of adobe bricks, as well as a detailed review of procedures adopted, and results obtained by different authors regarding the mechanical characterization of traditional adobe bricks. This chapter focuses, in particular, on the behaviour of adobe bricks when subjected to simple compression. It provides an overview of the existing knowledge and identifies needs for future research and development.