Pullout tests on deformed and plain rebars in cement-stabilized rammed earth

Stabilized rammed earth offers a low energy durable alternative to conventi onal building materials, such as masonry and processed timber, for low-rise residential projects. To date, rammed earth construction has mainly been u sed in the developing world, particularly Africa and Asia. Despite recent a pplications in Australia and the United States, further development of ramm ed earth in these countries has been hindered by a lack of data on importan t aspects of material performance. In this paper, work undertaken to assess bond of rebars embedded in rammed earth is described. A variety of cement- stabilized rammed earth pullout test samples were fabricated with deformed, galvanized deformed, plain, and stainless steel rebar. Pullout bond resist ance is shown to be a function of rammed earth compressive strength, rebar type, embedment length, and the method of specimen preparation.