Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04534-9 ORIGINAL PAPER Rammed earth structures reinforced by waste tire textile fbers as an attempt to reduce the environmental impacts H. Nouri 1  · M. Safehian 1  · S. M. M. M. Hosseini 2 Received: 9 November 2021 / Revised: 29 June 2022 / Accepted: 9 September 2022 © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University 2022 Abstract Rammed earth is known as a sustainable construction method due to its low energy consumption. Recently, environmental awareness has led to reduced energy consumption by using recycled materials. Moreover, end-of-life materials are causing environmental pollution. Tires are one of the most widely used materials by humans, and used tires result in remarkable pollution at the end of their life. Five series of rammed earth specimens with dimensions of 600 × 600 × 150 mm were constructed for the current experiments. The frst was unstabilized rammed earth without the additive mixture and acted as the reference material. The second was an 8% cement-added. In addition to 8% cement, 2% and 4% waste tire textile fbers were added to the third and fourth, respectively. Finally, the ffth included a mixture of soil and 4% tire fbers without any cement addition. The specimens were tested according to the ASTM-E519 standard, as the diagonal shear behavior under compressive pressure in a particular loading system was developed for this research.The addition of cement increased the shear strength by more than 100% and reduced the ductility. In contrast, the use of tire fbers increased the ductility of the specimens. Failure patterns of diagonal tension were observed in the form of vertical cracks. In the samples without cement, in addition to vertical cracks, other cracks developed in the direction of compacted soil layers. Using tire fbers to reinforce rammed earth and improve its stabilization with cement can result in sustainable constructions with improved structural behavior and proper disposal of end-of-life tires. Keywords Cement stabilization Diagonal shear · Earth materials · End-of-life tires · In-plane shear · Waste tire textile fbers Introduction Earth has been used as a construction material for many years, and many people still live in earthen buildings (Minke 2000; Sameh 2014). Ideally, sandy clay and gravel soils are used in rammed earth buildings. Earthen materials of opti- mum moisture content compacted as 10- to 15-cm-thick layers inside a temporary formwork are used to build walls (Walker et al. 2005; Kariyawasam and Jayasinghe 2016; Nouri et al. 2021). In the construction industry, earthen walls can be considered a cheap option as one of the alter- natives for contractors. In this technique, the soil required for construction does not need special preparation. In addition, aggregates are usually collected from the construction site. This reduces the cost of processing and transporting the soil from the overall cost of the project. (Kosarimovahhed and Toufgh 2020) The use of materials at the construction site, along with minimal preparation and transportation, results in reduced carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption. The soil materials used for housing construction should not contain organic materials or excessive clay (Bui et al. 2009). Clay acts as a binder between the grains, a mixture of silt, sand, and gravel. The optimal moisture content should be considered during construction to reach maximum dry soil density with a certain level of compaction energy (Bui et al. 2009; Nouri et al. 2021). Soil compaction can be performed using either mechanical or pneumatic rammers (Pavan et al. 2020a). Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia. * M. Safehian safehian@srbiau.ac.ir 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran