Effect of Incorporating Cement and Olive Waste Ash on the Mechanical Properties of Rammed Earth Block

Rammed earth blocks have recently gained substantial popularity in construction materials due to their environmental benefits, energy saving, and financial effectiveness. These benefits are even more pronounced if waste materials such as olive waste ash (OWA) are incorporated in rammed earth blocks. There is limited information on the use of OWA in rammed earth blocks. This paper investigates the use of OWA and cement in improving rammed earth block characteristics. OWA was incorporated to partially replace the soil by 10, 20, 30 and 40% of its weight and cement was added in percentages of 2, 4, 6 and 8% by the dry weight of the composite soil. Proctor, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests were performed at 7, 28, and 56 days. Results indicated that OWA inclusion decreased the maximum dry density while it increased the optimum moisture content. However, cement addition improved the maximum dry density of soil. The UCS results revealed that OWA possessed cementitious and pozzolanic behavior, and soil mechanical properties improved by up to 30% due to OWA inclusion, after which there was a significant drop of 40%. The trend in the CBR results was similar to those of UCS. To further clarify the experimental results, a mathematical model was proposed to determine the variation in strength as a function of time. Furthermore, correlations between soil mechanical properties were conducted. Predicted equations were developed to determine the properties of rammed earth block. All in all, the inclusion of OWA in cement stabilized earth block suggests the potential to improve the properties of rammed earth blocks.