Statistical damage model with strain softening for lime-stabilized rammed earth after elevated temperature

Many historical earthen buildings are damaged due to fire exposure in the past. It is important to understand the strength degradation of rammed earth after elevated temperature for guiding the strategy of building protection or rehabilitation. A total of 24 unconfined compression tests are conducted on lime-stabilized rammed earth specimens after elevated temperature up to 700°C. A quasi-linear reduction in strength and stiffness is found for rammed earth with the increase of temperature. At high temperature, the ductility of rammed earth is enhanced, e.g., strain at peak strength of 2.5% and 1.5% at 700°C and 20°C, respectively. Microstructural analyses demonstrate that with the increase of temperature, the specimen becomes more porous with reduced calcium carbonate precipitation, explaining the strength reduction. A new thermal damage model is proposed to describe the behavior of rammed earth after elevated temperature, in which the closure of pores is captured to show unrecoverable deformation, and the skeleton part is simulated using a thermal damage variable in a statistical manner to present the damage evolution (strain softening). By comparing with the measured stress-strain curves, one can confirm that the proposed method can provide effective prediction for the response of rammed earth after elevated temperature.