Dr. Michele Barbato, UC Davis will present on Monday, Jan 27 at 3pm in STEPS 101

Earthen construction dates back over 3,000 years ago, with examples found all over the world. Nowadays, a significant portion of the world's population lives in eart-based dwellings. Earthen construction provides several advantages over other ordinary housebuilding methods (e.g. fired masonry and wood construction), as it is affordable and locally appropriate, energy and humidity efficient, and environmentally friendly. The need for affordable and sustainable alternatives to traditional housing construction is clear: by the end of this century, due to the expected increase in the world’s population and improvement of living conditions, two billion new homes will be needed to meet the future housing demand. However, traditionally-built earthen structures
(i.e., non-engineered cob, rammed earth, or adobe construction) are often inherently brittle and not capable of resisting extreme loads from natural hazards such as earthquakes and strong winds; therefore, they are inadequate for mainstream modern construction. In the last few decades, significant research has been devoted to developing engineered earth blocks as a more affordable and ecologically-friendly alternative to other masonry elements. This presentation will focus on recent research on the use of compressed and stabilized earth block (CSEB) construction for affordable and sustainable housing, including a feasibility study for houses in hurricane-prone regions, novel numerical approaches for finite element analysis of earthen masonry, and an investigation on the effects of high temperatures on the mechanical properties of CSEBs. Finally, recent and ongoing research efforts within the UC Davis CARC and CITRIS Climate will also be briefly discussed.