TY - JOUR
T1 - An Investigation into the Potential Use of TDR Measurement Systems to Accurately Assess the Moisture Content at the Center of Completed Earthen Walls
AU - Goodhew, S
AU - Fox, M
AU - Carfrae, J
AU - Boutouil, M
AU - Strieff, F
PY - 2022/6/9
Y1 - 2022/6/9
N2 - When conserving or extending historic buildings, the ability to improve fabric thermal performance
is often limited by the traditional nature of the original material. This limits the ability for historic
buildings to adapt to our changing climate. Following greater awareness of the climate emergency,
there is a growing argument that traditional building materials and methods should evolve to
become more climate resilient. Whilst traditional cob has inherent thermal qualities, it’s inability to
meet stringent thermal insulation standards is the rationale behind this study.
The CobBauge walling system is one iteration of the traditional cob building technique to allow cob
and other historic earthen building methods to conform to many country’s thermal building
regulations. The moisture content of earth walls has a well-known impact upon the development of
wall strength and corresponding rates of shrinkage when repairing and extending historic earthen
buildings. There is a known relationship between the density and thermal conductivity of earthen
walls (Volhard, 2016, Minke, 2000), yet the ability to safely construct an earth wall system that
incorporates two layers of different densities to improve the thermal performance of historic earth
buildings raises questions concerning differential shrinkage. To assess the shrinkage this research
develops a methodology that can be used to investigate moisture distribution and shrinkage
movement within an innovative composite cob walling system (CobBauge) that can be used to repair
or extend historic earthen structures.
AB - When conserving or extending historic buildings, the ability to improve fabric thermal performance
is often limited by the traditional nature of the original material. This limits the ability for historic
buildings to adapt to our changing climate. Following greater awareness of the climate emergency,
there is a growing argument that traditional building materials and methods should evolve to
become more climate resilient. Whilst traditional cob has inherent thermal qualities, it’s inability to
meet stringent thermal insulation standards is the rationale behind this study.
The CobBauge walling system is one iteration of the traditional cob building technique to allow cob
and other historic earthen building methods to conform to many country’s thermal building
regulations. The moisture content of earth walls has a well-known impact upon the development of
wall strength and corresponding rates of shrinkage when repairing and extending historic earthen
buildings. There is a known relationship between the density and thermal conductivity of earthen
walls (Volhard, 2016, Minke, 2000), yet the ability to safely construct an earth wall system that
incorporates two layers of different densities to improve the thermal performance of historic earth
buildings raises questions concerning differential shrinkage. To assess the shrinkage this research
develops a methodology that can be used to investigate moisture distribution and shrinkage
movement within an innovative composite cob walling system (CobBauge) that can be used to repair
or extend historic earthen structures.
UR - https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/context/ada-research/article/1218/viewcontent/V8_210413_V8_Clean.pdf
M3 - Conference proceedings published in a journal
VL - 0
JO - An Investigation into the Potential Use of TDR Measurement Systems to Accurately Assess the Moisture Content at the Center of Completed Earthen Walls
JF - An Investigation into the Potential Use of TDR Measurement Systems to Accurately Assess the Moisture Content at the Center of Completed Earthen Walls
IS - 0
T2 - Terra 2022 13th World Congress on Earthen Architectural Heritage
Y2 - 9 June 2022
ER -