EMPIRICAL TESTING OF INTERLOCKING COMPRESSED EARTH BRICK WALLS USING SCALED 3D-PRINTED MODELS

Abstract

This study investigates the feasibility of using 3D-printed scaled models to replicate the compressive behaviour of interlocking compressed earth brick (ICEB) units and walls. Full-scale testing of ICEB walls is costly and time-consuming, making scaled model testing an attractive alternative. Three-dimensional printing was used to fabricate scaled down ICEB units and wall specimens at scales of 1:5, 1:8 and 1:10. Compressive strength tests were conducted on both individual ICEB units and wall panels under restrained and unrestrained conditions, and the resulting load–deformation response, yield stress, and failure mode were compared with those of full-size specimens. The results showed that the load-carrying capacity of both the 3D-printed ICEB units and walls increased as the model scale decreased. For the individual units, the smallest model scale of 1:10 most closely reproduced the behaviour of the full-size ICEB unit. whilst the wall specimens showed the closest agreement with its full-size counterpart at the largest scale of 1:5. Restraints made little different to the wall yield stress except at the smallest scale of 1:10. The 3D-printed scaled ICEB unit and walls fail exhibiting ductile behaviour as opposed to the brittle splitting mode seen in full-size units. These findings demonstrate that 3D-printing can provide a practical method for scaled ICEB testing, although additional work would need to be carried out to correlate other scaling parameters such as material properties.