Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

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Case study

Experimental study on the effectiveness of short fiber reinforced

clay mortars and plasters on the mechanical behavior of adobe
masonry walls
Fatemeh Faghih Khorasani, Mohammad Zaman Kabir *
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, AmirKabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The purpose of this study is to improve the behavior of adobe masonry walls using short fiber
Clay adobe reinforced mortars and plasters. Two different short fibers, straw fibers, which are commonly
Reinforced plasters used by traditional builders, and a waste rubber fiber, produced by local tire factories, were
Mud mortars
selected as reinforcement entities for mortars and plasters to investigate experimentally their
Diagonal tensile test, adobe prisms
influences on the mechanical properties of adobe masonry walls.
In this direction, several basic tests, including direct compression and diagonal shear tests,
were carried out on the adobes, mortars and adobe masonry units with different mortars and
plasters. The obtained results indicated that the effects of mortar mixes have significantly impact
on the compressive strength of the adobe units in prism specimens. For instance, the adobe prisms
using reinforced mortar, mix of mud and short tire fibers, have given the maximum compressive
strength, almost twice of the plain one. Nevertheless, the final damage mode was observed
promptly and impulsively. It was apparent that using the reinforced mortar with one week-soaked
natural straw fibers makes an improvement of the compressive strength and its corresponding
strain of adobe masonry prisms by 87% and 18%, respectively. Adding well soaked straw fibers to
the clay plaster could even increase the compressive strain of the covered prism specimens by
47%. Carrying the diagonal tensile tests have shown considerable enhancement on the ultimate
shear strength and shear strain of the plaster. The adobe masonry Wallette covered with the
reinforced plaster by straw fibers would resist 204% and 433% more shear strength and strain,
with respect to the uncovered one. Also, use of short rubber fibers reinforced plaster has made
433% and 150% improvement in ultimate shear strength and strain, respectively.

1. Introduction

The adobe shelters are popular due to their advantageous, e.g. eco-friendly accommodations, thermal and acoustic insulation, fire
proofing capabilities, low cost and accessible construction technology and materials [1,2]. The main load bearing elements in such
building types are walls which are subjected to the gravity and lateral forces. Adobe masonry walls are assembled by adobe bricks
which are connected to each other by mortars. Therefore, to study the performance of the walls, behavior of adobes, mortars, their
interfaces and prisms should be considered. There are researchers who have studied different strength characteristics and their

* Correspondence to: Department of Civil Engineering, Amirkabir university of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
E-mail address: mzkabir@aut.ac.ir (M.Z. Kabir).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e00918
Received 9 September 2021; Received in revised form 14 January 2022; Accepted 24 January 2022
Available online 26 January 2022
2214-5095/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

relationships for reinforced and plain adobes [3–13]. Few studies are available for analysis of adobe masonry prisms [14–18], while
studying the interface of adobe and different mortars are also limited. Nevertheless, some papers have determined basic parameters
such as cohesion factor (c), internal friction angle (∅) and the dilatancy angle (φ) [19–22] to study conventional brick masonries. The
related building codes and standards [23,24] give formulas which correlate the adobe walls compression and shear strength with prism
and Wallette strengths, see some examples in Appendix 1. Stack-bonded prisms are formed by placing a number of adobe bricks, one
above the other whereas in the running bond Wallette, the adobe- mortar units are laid in consecutive courses offset by around a half
adobe.
The process of earth building involves some usual steps from choosing suitable building site to obtaining code compliance cer­
tificate. There are some building codes which present a number of some descriptive rules or engineering design formulas to build a
suitable earth construction. The name of these references and the process of building an earth construction is provided in Appendix 1.
The purpose of the current study is to improve the behaviors of adobe masonry walls using reinforced mortars or plasters and
comparing the effectiveness of mortars with plasters as a basic step for future studies. The main contribution of this paper is to
investigate the influences of short straw fibers and waste rubber fibers on the strength, ductility and mode of failure of different adobes,
mortars and plasters individually and in the shape of prisms and Wallette under various loading.
It should be mentioned that the examinations of different adobe-mortars interfaces are presented in the recent study of authors [25]
by drawing the multi-surface failure interface model. However, the application of short fiber reinforcement has not been studied in
descriptive details, yet.

1.1. Research significance

Many of the existing adobe buildings, particularly those in old tissue of historic cities in developing countries, are still in everyday
use. A primary example is the historic city of Yazd in Iran which is proud of its recognition as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO along
with other Iranian major historical cities, like Kashan, Kerman and Isfahan. On the other hand, adobe, as a maintainable and locally
available material, is receiving a growing interest for use in new construction projects. Nonetheless, the vulnerability of adobe con­
structions due to its brittleness under axial and lateral loading conditions is considered to be a critical shortcoming in their imple­
mentation as a hazard-resistant building. Consequently, reliable and inexpensive strengthening techniques need to be developed if the
adequate resistance in terms of strength and ductility is provided. In this direction, the effectiveness of short fibers used in mortars and
covering plasters on basic mechanical behavior is thoroughly examined in order to give a better understanding of reinforced adobe
wall performances under conventional loading. Furthermore, the results obtained from such investigations may assist the construction
designers with more reliable and oriented techniques that are capable of not only strengthening the damaged/undamaged adobe walls
but also retaining their architectural and thermal characteristics.

2. Materials and methods

In this study, the soil used for preparing adobes was provided from Tehran-Khatoonabad region in Iran, locally used for producing
fire-burnt clay bricks. The sieve analysis was carried out in accordance with ASTM D 2487–98 standard [26] gives the following
percentages by weight: 90% clay+ silt (grain diameter (dg) < 0.075 mm) and 10% sand (0.075 mm<dg<4.75 mm). The Atterberg
limits were measured in conforming with ASTM D4318 [27] as follows: plastic limit 15%, liquid limit 23%, and plasticity index 8%. To
have mineral and chemical measurements of the soil both X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) tests were done. It was
shown that the sample was essentially composed of quartz (SiO2), Calcite, Magnesian (Ca, Mg) CO3, Anorthite Ca (Al2 Si2 O8 and
Kaolinite 2\ITM\RG (Al2 Si2 O5 (OH)4). The chemical composition of raw material is given in Table 1.
The grain size distribution and X-ray diffraction pattern of the raw material and the peak list are also presented in Appendix 2.
To prepare different experimental specimens, adobe bricks were made by skilled workers in the local region through their common
procedure which is a similar practice in different cities of Iran. As a brief description: adequate water is added to the soil and it is left for
24 h to infiltrate water into uncrushed clods of soil. Then, the mix is overturned and kneaded thoroughly. After that a certain volume of
muddy soil, water weight/dried soil weight= 30%, which filled up the whole mold is put, shaped and compacted into the wooden mold
which is covered with a thin layer of ash to make the removing easier. Then, the mold is removed and the bricks are airing in the
shadow. After 1 day, adobes are placed vertically, for faster drying. The adobes are stand to dry out for about 1 month. In the current
study the adobes were tested after 28 days, to be assured the weight of specimens are unchanged.
All adobes were in the average size of 50 * 200 * 50 mm3 with the average weight of 1150 g. Four kinds of mortars and two different
kinds of plasters, having similar types of soil were used in this study. The types of mortars are: MI- mud only, MII- mix of mud and short
tire fibers, MIII- mix of mud and natural straw fibers when straw fibers were soaked for 10 min, MIV- mix of mud and natural straw
fibers when straw fibers were soaked for one week.1 Also, the two kinds of plasters are: PI-mix of mud and short tire fibers, PII- mix of
4
mud and natural straw fibers when straw fibers were soaked for one week. Water was added to the powdered soil in the proportion of 10
(water weight/dried soil weight).2 Tire short fibers were the waste of a local tire factory which are burnt or buried leading to several

1
As these two different mixes of mud and straw fibers are applied by local traditional builders which have been not studied yet and there are
waste tire fibers of local tire factories.
2
“It was trying to make mortars and plasters in the similar way that local skilled workers have made, so the quantity of tire and straw fibers in the
mix with mud and proportion of water was also selected based on the experiences of them”.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Table 1
Chemical mixture of the raw materials.
Compound Name Chemical Formula Mineral Name Crystal System

Silicon Oxide Si O2 Quartz low Hexagonal

Calcium Magnesium Carbonate ( Ca, Mg) C O3 Calcite, Magnesian Rhombohedral
Calcium Aluminum Silicate Ca ( Al2 Si2 O8) Anorthite Anorthic
Aluminum Silicate Hydroxide Al2 Si2 O5 ( O H)4 Kaolinite 2\ITM\RG Monoclinic

environmental contamination problems, while, the straw fibers were agricultural waste. Both tire and straw fibers had a random length
less than 50 mm and were added in the proportion of 7.5 10 (wet fiber volume/ wet soil volume). Straw fibers were added in two types, in
one group straw fibers were soaked for 10 min and in another group, they were soaked for one week to study the effects of soaking
period on the reinforced mud with these natural fibers through the presence of lignin in some plant fibers. The mechanical charac­
teristics of the fibers are given in Table 2. In this table, the water absorption of straw fibers is very high. Soaked fibers can act as a small
water reservoir which pump the water to the binder matrix and reduce shrinkage [29]. It should be mentioned that the used fibers in
the current paper are the same with the studied fibers in Table 2. The shape of both tire and straw fibers are illustrated in Fig. 1.

3. Experimental programs

All the proposed experimental tests were applied on three analogous specimens for each type of mortars. The tests were run in the
similar environment conditions for all specimens as well; 22 ◦ C, 55% humidity rate. For each type of the tests, the reported curve
reflects the average results of three tests. In the following subsections, every test with the measured results is described in details. The
current study tries to investigate some of mechanical behaviors of adobes and mortars by displacement control and masonries by load
control tests. For each type of the tests, the adobe masonry specimens were constructed by the same adobes and four different types of
mortars when the applied mortar in the units with plaster coating was only mud. The thickness of mortar layers and plasters were
considered around 10 mm and the curing period for the specimens without plaster were 4 weeks when 2 extra weeks were needed for
curing the specimens with plaster coating.3
The utilized loading machine for studying prisms and Wallette was a hydraulic jack that could apply only compressive loads and
was mounted on a rigid reaction frame. One load cell was installed in series with the jack and for measuring the applied displacements,
the specimens were instrumented with Linear Variable Differential Transducers (LVDTs) measured the shortening or lengthening of
the vertical or horizontal length of the specimens under compressive loads during the tests. Each specimen was loaded continuously
without shock and the loading procedure was applied in a load-controlled method. The loads were applied at a constant rate of about
10 kN/min up to the final stage of failure.

3.1. Mechanical properties of adobe and mortars

The compressive and tensile strength of the adobe and mortar specimens were characterized through displacement-controlled tests
when the moving head of the testing machine (DARTEC-9600) travelled at a constant rate of 0.6 mm/min to yield a complete post peak
behavior.

3.1.1. Adobe direct compressive and indirect tensile tests

3.1.1.1. Compressive strength testing of Adobe bricks. In the absence of international documented standards and by referring to earthen
materials for construction, it was decided to test the full-scale adobes in the direction which they will be used in practice [ 10, 11]. For
eliminating the platen restraint effects, these tests were repeated for the intact half-specimens resulted from flexural strength test [31],
see Fig. 2. The uniaxial compressive strength was estimated by simple dividing of the maximum exerted load over the initial horizontal
surface area of the specimen, see Fig. 4a and Table 3.

3.1.1.2. Indirect tensile test. To determine the tensile strength of adobes, there are two ways of direct and in-direct 3-point bending or
splitting tensile tests [32]. The authors have shown that the tensile strength can be successfully achievable using a 3-point bending test,
as an indirect tensile test which is more practical than direct tensile test for a brittle clay adobe [32,33]. So, following ASTM-C78
standard [34], the three-point bending test was carried out to measure the tensile strength of the adobes. Each specimen was
placed over two steel supports in a way to obtain a clear span length of 150 mm, whereas a concentrated load was applied at the mid
span section, Fig. 2-b. By applying the homogenization approach of the elastic beam theory in the elastic range [33], the average elastic
tensile stress- strain behavior for three tested adobes at the middle of adobe was calculated which is presented in Fig. 4. The computed
tensile properties of tested adobes by 3-point bending method are presented in Table 3.

3
It was trying to build masonry specimens in a way that local skilled workers construct adobe buildings.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Table 2
Mechanical characteristics of reinforcing fibers [28,30].
Property Unit Tire fibers (Rubber fibers) Straw fibers

Equivalent diameter mm 0.80 0.3

Length mm ≈ 30a ≈ 30a
Tensile strength MPa 600 14.7
Elongation at break % 22 1.5
Elastic modulus GPa 2.7 0.07
Water absorption % 2.5 300
a
fiber length range= 10–40 mm.

Fig. 1. Short reinforcing fibers: (a) Tire fibers, (b) Straw fibers.

Fig. 2. Experimental test setup on adobe specimens.

3.1.2. Mortars direct compressive and indirect tensile tests

All four kinds of selected mortars including MI- mud only, MII- mix of mud and short tire fibers, MIII- mix of mud and natural straw
fibers when straw fibers were soaked for 10 min, MIV- mix of mud and natural straw fibers when straw fibers were soaked for one
week, were tested in accordance with EN 1015–11 [31]. For each kind of mortar, a total of six identical specimens with dimensions

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Table 3
The average compressive and tensile mechanical properties of laboratory adobe and mortars specimens.
f’c (MPa) (compressive εc (the strain corresponding Eca (MPa) (compressive Young’s ft (MPa) (tensile strength) by 3Point
strength) to fc) modulus) Bending Test

Complete Adobe 4.04 0.041 124 1

Half of Adobe 3.3 0.058 115 –
Non-reinforced mud 2.6 0.046 110 0.6
mortar
mud+ straw fibers 1 0.02 100 0.17
mortar
mud+ tire fibers 1.9 0.06 90 0.14
mortar

a σc,60%− σc,30%
Ec: is calculated as the slope of compressive stress-strain curve in a certain stress range over linear rate of strain [35], in this study ≈ .
εc,60%− εc,30%

Fig. 3. Failure modes of mortar specimens under axial compression and three-point bending tests. (a)Mud only mortar, (b) Mud+ short tire fibers
mortar, (c) Mud+ straw fibers mortar.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

(height*width*length) of 40 * 40 * 160 mm3 were cast into steel molds. After 28 days, as the specimens’ weight was not changed, they
were subjected to three-point bending tests. Fig. 3, show the modes of failure for the tested adobe and mortar specimens under uniaxial
compression and three-point bending loads.
The average of tensile and compressive strength versus their corresponding strains for different mortars are depicted in Fig. 4-a, b,
see also Table 3.
Fig. 4a shows the compressive stress versus compressive strain of mortar. It is seen that the initial slope is considerable small
because of the initial porosity of the soil particles and small pores except the one which was mixed with soaked straw fibers. By
increasing the compacting process, the poor soil particles of mud specimens are consolidated while small pores and air-voids are
crushed and the initial existing defects like shrinkage cracks become thinner, consequently, the compressive stress is gradually
increased. The figure also demonstrates that the selected percentage of straw fibers and their saturation state and the percentage of
their lignin, eliminate the initial existing small pores, air voids or any other defects. Subsequently, after the initial stages, the specimen
becomes stiffer with a quasi-linear behavior. However, prior to the peak load, the trend of the compressive stress-strain curves turns
into non-linear indicating of material degradation up to the maximum stress. It is seen that as the applied load increases, the
compressive strength tends to decrease until final collapse occurs. It is obvious that the high percentage of short fibers makes reduction
of the maximum strength which was expected according to the literature [1,5], nevertheless, they have extended the plastic domain
and hinder the final failure of the specimen.
The maximum compressive strength for the plain mud mortar is lower than the adobes, as they have identical material mix design
but have different water content and also the indirect tensile strength of adobe is bigger than the mud mortar.

3.2. Mechanical properties of adobe masonry prisms

3.2.1. Compression tests

3.2.1.1. General concepts. In this section the compressive strength of the adobe masonry prisms is investigated. Two main arrange­
ments are stack-bonded prisms and running bond adobe Wallette. The form, scale and size of the tested specimens were considered as
substantial variables by different researchers [36–39]. It should be noted that the ratio of the mortar stiffness to the brick stiffness can
change the uniaxial compressive loading state to tri-axial loading state. When the ratio is equal to 1, the adobe masonry unit could be
approximately considered as a homogeneous and transversely isotropic material. Under uniaxial compression with weak mortar
stiffness, the bed mortar may slightly expand laterally more than the adobe brick due to the Poisson effect, which trigger to form the
shear stress at the interface of brick–mortar in which the mortar is laterally confined by the brick. In this situation, the weak mortar

Fig. 4. Average axial stress versus axial strain (a) Compressive loading (error around 2%), (b) Indirect tensile stress- strain obtained using 3-point
bending test (error around 3%).

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

enters into non-linear (plastic) deformation much faster than the bricks [40]. When the mortar is stiffer than the adobe brick, the stress
state becomes tri-axial compression in bricks and axial compression with lateral tension in mortar [41] and the masonry failure is
occurring by crushing the bricks, see Fig. 5 for more details. Some researchers have addressed to this point that for adobe bricks with
the strong compression strength, the only softness refers to the brick tensile strength, [41,42]. The properties of mortars have a strong
impact on the deformation of the masonry. The relations between masonry’s stress and strain become progressively non-linear when
the mortar strength was reduced as it was mentioned before [43].

3.2.1.2. Experimental Test set up and the results. In the current study the adobe masonry prisms are subjected to uniaxial compression
and 3-point bending loads. The prisms were piled by setting five full size adobe bricks. Mortars were applied at brick joints with 10 mm
thickness. Four different mortar mix designs were utilized; MI, MII, MIII and MIV and two different plasters, PI and PII, were used as
described in Section 3. The applied mortar in the specimens which were coated with plaster was non-reinforced mud, so there were 6
different kinds of prisms were tested in this study. The tests were carried out on an electro hydraulic machine allowing to apply force.
Loading rate was about 10 kN/min to have failure within 60–90 s [2,35,44]. The instruments for measuring the axial displacements
were supplied by two LVDTs, were attached to a steel plate connected to the loading plate, see Fig. 6-a. The compressive stress was
simply calculated by dividing the exerted load over the initial cross-sectional area for each specimen and the axial strain was estimated
based on the average recording by LVDTs (Linear Variable Differential Transformer). All four types of applied mortars were weaker
than the adobe brick and all of the adobe masonry prisms were experienced a brittle failure damage after reaching to their peak
strength. Fig. 6(a - f) show the test set up and mode of failure.
It was shown that all the stack-bonded prisms were failed in a sudden and impulsive mode except those specimens which use
mortars made of mud and straw fibers, see Fig. 6c. As it was previously explained, the observed failure for adobe masonry prisms with
mortar made of mud and straw fibers, was crushing the adobe bricks which is not explosive with pre-announced indications (visible
progressive cracks), nevertheless, for other mortars the failure modes were adobe tension mode. The compressive failure was occurred
so fast without any noticeable warning, except some specimens with unreinforced mortar which are explained in the proceeding
section. In addition, Figs. 7 and 8 demonstrate schematically, the stress distribution when the mortar is softer than the adobe.
It was also seen that the mechanical properties of properly cured adobe prisms having unreinforced mortar are similar to mud
mortar. Under compression, there is no significant differences between lateral expansion and line mortar materials. The consequence
of such behavior yields a uniaxial stress field. This cause the initial squeezing out of the mortar and later crumbling of the mortar would
reduce the load bearing capacity of prism, shown in Fig. 8, even though the failure can be formed in a sudden mode to some extent. It
was also realized that the plain mud mortar with initial shrinkage cracks makes a non-continuous bonding layer. This may cause some
progressive cracks due to numerous stress concentration in the adobe elements. As a result, the load bearing capacity of the adobe
prisms becomes considerably important with non-impulsive failure mode.
The average stress-strain diagrams obtained from the monotonic compression test on stack-bonded prisms constructed with five
adobes are presented in Fig. 9a and also the compressive stress-strain diagrams obtained from the tests on stack-bonded prisms
constructed with two adobes, which are introduced in the authors recent study [25], are shown in Fig. 9b. It is seen that the
stress-strain curve for the adobe prisms with non-reinforced mud is the lowest one. By comparing the results depicted in Fig. 9a,b and
considering Fig. 4, one can see that the trend of the stress-strain curves up to the maximum compressive strength of the adobe masonry
prism is very much analogous to its individual adobes. In another words, at the beginning stage, a consolidation phenomenon occurs
which is followed by a compression hardening phase up to the point of maximum compressive strength. Even though, a softening
behavior before the peak strength was also performed. These adobe masonry prisms are not homogenous and they are made of two
distinct materials with different mechanical properties. Some researchers who investigated the behavior of adobe masonry have noted
that a ductile behavior after reaching to the maximum compressive strength, may yield despite developing of significant damage at the
surface, the core of the masonries remained coherent where no longer visual distinction between adobes and the mortar [35,38,39]. In
their studies of stack-bonded prisms, the adobes were large and the height of the prisms were less than its width and length and the

Fig. 5. (a) Masonry prism under uniaxial compression state, (b) Stress state when the brick is stiffer than mortar, (c) Stress state when the brick is
softer than mortar.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

utilized soil, water and their proportion were similar for making the adobes and mortars. Some other researchers who used different
materials with different mechanical properties as brick and mortar for stack-bonded prisms, experienced a brittle behavior after the
maximum compressive strength when the mortar was weak, [40,45–47].
Considering once more the Figs. 6e, f and 9a, the applied cover plasters were not able to change the mode of failure and they

Fig. 6. (a) Experimental set-up of load control compressive tests on stack-bonded prisms with two LVDTs, (b) Mix of mud and MII mortar, (c) Mix of
mud and MIII mortar (d) Mix of mud and MIV mortar, (e) Mix of MI mortar and PI plaster, (f) Mix of MI mortar with PII plaster; blue lines indicate
the cracks formation before the final destroying. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Fig. 6. (continued).

remained impulsive. The mix of short tire fibers and mud plaster made the adobe prisms stiffer and stronger, nevertheless, the mix of
straw fibers and mud plaster did not make special effects on the stiffness and strength of the prism. However, by adding the natural
straw fibers to the mud plaster, the behavior of the covered prisms becomes ductile under thrust loading making numerous cracks
before reaching to the prism ultimate compressive strength.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Fig. 7. Stress distribution in the adobe and mortar: (a) At the first step and before crumbling, (b) After crumbling, (c) Lateral stresses in the mortar,
causing tension in the brick, (d) Lateral stress distribution across the thickness of the brick [45].

Fig. 8. (a) Squeezing of the mortar at first step, (b) Crumbling of the mortar at the outside contracts the effective joint area, (c) The stress con­
centration at the center of the column causes lateral tensile stresses which can cause a sudden and impulsive failure [45].

The influence of reinforced plasters on the maximum compressive strength or stiffness of the adobe prisms are not seen remarkable
compared to the reinforced mortars. From the predictability point of view, it recommends the use of mud mixed with well soaked straw
fibers as mortar and cover plaster in constructing of adobe masonry walls to have a relative ductile failure mode when the compressive
loading is concerned. By comparing Fig. 9a and b, it is noticed that prisms having 5 adobes have less strength with respect to prisms
with 2 adobes due to the effects of mortar layers side effects. The strength reduction in 5-adobe prism with mix of mud and straw fibers
mortar is more than other specimens. It changes from adobe tensile cracking to adobe crushing in compression with a reduction in
adobe masonry strength, so increasing the numbers of mortar layers in these masonries is more efficient. A comparison was made

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Fig. 9. Average stress-strain curves obtained from the compression tests on stack-bonded prisms: (a) prisms constructed with five adobes (error
around 6%), (b) prisms constructed with two adobes (error around 4%).

Table 4
Compressive and tensile mechanical properties of adobe masonry prisms.
Applied Mortar or fc (MPa) (compressive εc (the strain Eca (MPa) (compressive ft (MPa) (tensile strength) by Unit weight
Plaster type strength) corresponding to fc) Young’s modulus) 3Point Bending Test (kg/cm3)

Mortar: MI (Control 1.5 0.017 318 0.031 0.00183

Prism)
Mortar: MII 2.3 0.015 137 0.04 0.0018
Comparing with + 53% -12% -56% + 29% –
control prism
Mortar: MIII 2.8 0.014 317 0.05 0.00184
Comparing with + 87% -18% -1% + 38% –
control prism
Mortar: MIV 3.2 0.019 190 0.06 0.00181
Comparing with + 115% + 12% -40% + 93% –
control prism
Mortar: MI+PI 1.5 0.025 200 0.05 0.0022
Comparing with + 4% + 47% -37% + 38% –
control prism
Mortar: MI+PII 2 0.011 216 0.06 0.0022
Comparing with + 33% -35% -32% + 93% –
control prism
a
Ec: is calculated as the slope of compressive stress-strain curve at a certain stress range over which strains increase linearly [35], in this study
σc,60%− σc,40%
≈ .
εc,60%− εc,40%

among the compression test results for prisms having five full-size adobes illustrated in Table 4 where the control prism is the specimen
having neither plaster nor reinforced mortar.
There are researchers tried to predict compressive strength of adobe masonry using adobe and mortar compressive strength
empirically [47–49] or analytically [50–52]. It should be stated that the mechanical properties of mud mortar, as laboratory test
results, are higher than those which are built in real construction site due to special treatment and conditions in the lab, e.g. minimizing
the shrinkage cracks. It should be noted that none of these equations consider the expected effect of the plasters. Accordingly, two
typical equations are brought as follows [47,48]:

fw = 0.83f 0.67
b fm
0.33
(1)

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

fw=0⋅3266 fb (1− 0⋅0027 fb+0⋅0147 fm) (2)

where fw is the compressive strength of adobe masonry, fb is the compressive strength of the individual adobe and fm is the compressive
strength of the mortar. Fig. 10a-c illustrate the comparison between the results of the current study (see Tables 3, 4 and Fig. 9) and the
empirical Eqs. (1) and (2). The differences for 5 adobes are shown in this figure.

3.2.2. Adobe prism tension test

Although, some formulations are available to estimate the tensile strength of masonry prisms by their compressive strength, this
study tries to calculate the tensile strength of the adobe prisms by testing the stack-bonded prisms with 5 adobes which were loaded
under 3-point bending tests, see Fig. 11.
The mechanical properties of different tested prisms are obtained and listed in Table 4.

Fig. 10. Comparison between the results of this study and equations number 17 and 18, (a) Prism with non-reinforced mortar, (b) Prism with
mud+ reinforcing short tire fibers, (c) Prism with mud+ reinforcing straw fibers; compressive strengths are in MPa.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Fig. 11. Flexural testing setup for adobe masonry prisms.

3.3. Diagonal compression test of adobe masonry Wallette

3.3.1. Introduction
Shear strength is one of the important mechanical properties which is directly related to the resistance of masonry walls against
lateral in-plane loading. According to the literature, there are ten mechanisms of failure for masonry subjected to in-plane loading
defined by three failure criterions, slipping, splitting, and spalling, owing to the amount of axial and lateral loads and their proportion
[39]. Some researchers have indicated [35] that by assuming homogenous and isotropic behavior for masonry walls, shear failure can
be caused by the principle tensile stresses generated by the combination of vertical and lateral loads and diagonal cracks are expected
to occur when the principle tensile stresses exceed a specific value which is called diagonal tensile strength (ftk) of masonry. For
evaluating the ftk, ASTM E519M-10 [53] recommends to impose the compression loading on masonry Wallette along its diagonal
direction at the angle of 45◦ with respect to the bed joints. It is expected that the specimen fails due to splitting apart parallel to the
direction of load.
According to Frocht’s [54] assumption, masonry is idealized into an isotropic linearly elastic material, if a compressive force of P
applies on one of the specimen’s diagonals, the elastic solution provides the following stress state at the mid height of the masonry
[35]:
P
σx = σy ≈ − 0.56 (3)
An

P
σxy ≈ 1.05 (4)
An
According to ASTM E519M-10 [53] assumption, a uniform stress state develops in the masonry during the test (σσIII = − 1, loading
direction angle 45◦ ) and, therefore, suggests that the shear stress can be calculated as:
P
σxy = 0.707 (5)
An

Where An is the net area of the panel in the direction of loading (along the vertical diagonal), σI is the maximum principle stress and σII
is the minimum principle stress.

3.3.2. Experimental test set up and the results

In this section, the adobe Wallette specimens were built following the running bond construction pattern with full-size adobes.
Mortars were applied at the layers with about 10 mm thickness for mud unreinforced mortar. Three kinds of wall panels were con­
structed: without plaster, with a layer made of mud+ short tire fibers plaster and with a layer made of mud+ straw fibers plaster when
straw fibers were soaked for 1 week as explained in Section 3. The thickness of plaster layers was also around 10 mm. The final di­
mensions of the adobe Wallette were around 600 * 600 * 50 mm3 (height*length*width). As was explained in Section 4, the exper­
iments were carried out on an electro hydraulic force controlled machine. Loading rate was about 10 kN/min to have failure in 60–90 s
[2,35,44]. The instrumentation setup for measuring the axial and lateral strains include four LVDTs attached to the steel plates, see
Fig. 12-a.
The experimental observations are briefly explained as follow:

1. It is illustrated that the failure of the specimens was occurred in the form of cracking along the direction of the applied forces.
2. In the adobe masonry Wallette without plaster it was observed that the cracks form in a stepped pattern which propagates through
the mortar joints, Fig. 12b, it was originated, instantaneously, at two neighboring head joints to the support platen then cracking
developed at the adjacent bed joints. At the end, a distributed cracking pattern was formed between the head and bed joints cause
split the specimen in-two-half in a brittle mode, no fracturing of adobes was noted. This mode of failure is in agreement with some
other researchers’ findings [35,55,56] and remarks the negligible shear strength in unreinforced adobe masonry due to weak
bonding among the bricks [55].

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Fig. 12. (a) Experimental set-up provided for implementing load control diagonal tension tests on running-bonded Wallette, LVDTs are specified (b)
Modes of failure in diagonal tension tests on Wallette without plaster; blue lines indicate the cracks formation before the final destroying, (c)
Mud+ 1 week, soaked straw fibers as plaster (d) Mud+ short tire fibers mortar as plaster. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

3. In the adobe masonry Wallette with a layer made of mud+ straw fibers as plaster, Fig. 12c, a sudden diagonal crack was developed
between upper and lower imposing platen and after some seconds the specimen was split in- two-half, the shape of residual two
segments illustrates that except the progressive cracks through head and bed joints some adobes were cracked additionally, the
ultimate strength was improved, but the failure was still so brittle.
4. In the adobe masonry Wallette with a layer made of mud+ short tire fibers as plaster, Fig. 12d, at the end stage of loading, the
plaster was not broken, unlike the mud+ straw fibers plaster, and only a crack was formed at the corner of specimen lateral side. In
the next stage, the layer of plaster was detached, consequently, more adobes were cracked in addition to head and bed joints
cracking.

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

5. It seems that the confinement effects of the plaster cause the stresses to be redistributed and make the load capacity of the specimen
higher and make more adobes to be cracked [2,55].
6. None of the adobe masonry Wallette have shown visible progressive and predictable cracks and the failure was happened suddenly.

To sketch the shear stress-strain diagrams for the tested specimens, two different Eqs. 6 and 7, can be employed. Despite the fact
that formal technical guides accept the hypothesis of pure shear stress state, some researchers with experimental and numerical studies
[16,57,58] have shown that the elastic solution can provide more reliable results. Therefore, with the assistance of Eqs. 3 and 4 for
finding the compressive and shear stresses, one can calculate the shear and compressive strains as follow:
δV + δH
γs ≈ (6)
d
γs
εc ≈ (7)
1.5
In which, δV is the vertical shortening, δH is horizontal extension, d is the specimen’s diameter, γs is the shear strain and εc is the
compressive strain. The obtained shear and compressive stress-strain diagrams are presented in Fig. 13.
Fig. 13 shows that the plasters have considerably increased the shear and compressive strength and also the maximum strain at the
final damage state with respect to those specimens without covering plasters. It is also seen that the confined specimens with tire fiber
reinforced plaster have higher strength in both shear and compression with respect to straw fiber reinforced plaster. The stress strain
curves of specimens covered with mixture of mud and short tire fiber plaster have two peaks which are attributed to the residual
strength of cracked specimen. A comparison among the results of the shear and compressive strength of the Wallette specimens are also
listed in Table 5.

4. Summary and remarked conclusions

This study investigates the effects of four different mortars (Mud, Mud+ short Tire fibers mix, Mud+ Straw fibers mix, when straw
fibers soaked for 10 min, Mud+ Straw fibers mix when straw fibers soaked for 1 week) and 2 different plasters (Mud+ short Tire fibers,
Mud+ Straw fibers when straw fibers soaked for 1 week) on the compressive strength of masonry units and diagonal tensile strength of
Wallette. The adobe bricks were made in the region of Tehran-Khatoonabad in Iran by traditional practice. It should be mentioned that
these selected mortars and plasters are applied by local skilled workers, which are not studied in depth yet. Since the percentage of

Fig. 13. (a) Average shear stress-strain curves obtained from diagonal tension testing on running-bonded Wallette (error around 10%), (b) Average
compressive stress-strain curves obtained from diagonal tension testing on running-bonded Wallette (error around 10%).

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F.F. Khorasani and M.Z. Kabir Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e00918

Table 5
Shear mechanical properties of adobe masonry Wallette.
Applied Mortar or Plaster fs (MPa) (shear γs the strain corresponding to fc (MPa) (compressive εc (the strain corresponding to
strength) fs) strength) fc)

Mortar: MI, (Control Prism) 0.007 0.004 0.003 0.003

Mortar: MIII 0.022 0.03 0.012 0.016
Comparing with control + 214% + 650% + 300% + 433%
prism
Mortar: MIV 0.031 0.01 0.016 0.008
Comparing with control + 343% + 150% + 433% + 170%
prism

fibers was high, applying them in the masonry specimens was to some extent difficult and making a straight wall or prism was not a
simple task, so local skilled workers built the specimens for this experimental program. The test results can be summarized as follows:
In compression tests of prisms:

• It was shown that the effects of mortars were more pronounced than plasters,
• The adobe units with the mortar of mud+ short tire fibers have shown the maximum strength and stiffness with a sudden failure,
• The mixture of short tire fibers and mud plaster makes the prisms stiffer and stronger whereas the plaster made of straw fiber­
s+ mud plaster did little effect on the stiffness and strength of the prism,
• It was established that by adding the mixture of mud and straw fibers (which were soaked for one week) to the mortar or plaster, the
failure mode under thrust loading is more predictable and non-accidental.
• It was also found that mortar which was reinforced with straw fibers, which were soaked, improve compressive strength by 87%
and the mortar reinforced with short tire fibers has an increase of the maximum compressive strength by 115% although with
sudden and spontaneous collapse.

In diagonal tensile loading test of Wallette:

• By applying plasters, an increase in the capacity of both strain and stress without flattening region in the stress-strain curve before
the maximum point was observed. This means the failure was also occurred in a sudden mode.
• The stress- strain curve of the specimen with the plaster of mud + short tire fibers has shown two peaks owing to the crack for­
mation and redistribution of stresses in non-cracked elements,
• To go further, the adobe masonry Wallette covered with plaster mixed with straw fibers had made 204% and 433% increase in both
shear strength and strain, respectively. On the other hand, adding rubber fibers in clay plaster has shown 433% and 150%
improvement in ultimate shear strength and strain, respectively.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A. Supporting information

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version at doi:10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e00918.

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