Article
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Conservation of Defensive Military Structures Built with Rammed Earth
Version 1
: Received: 10 December 2023 / Approved: 11 December 2023 / Online: 12 December 2023 (04:24:39 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Rocha, M.; Faria, P.; Gago, A.S. Conservation of Defensive Military Structures Built with Rammed Earth. Buildings 2024, 14, 238. Rocha, M.; Faria, P.; Gago, A.S. Conservation of Defensive Military Structures Built with Rammed Earth. Buildings 2024, 14, 238.
Abstract
Earth is a complex material with a mechanical and physical behavior that differs from modern building materials. The conservation of rammed earth (RE) constructions presents specific difficulties that are challenging to overcome. The lack of knowledge about RE due to its abandonment for decades and attempts to adopt materials and repair methodologies designed for new building products has led to inadequate interventions. In the case of historic defensive constructions, the doubts and technical difficulties are even greater due to the nature of the so called military RE (with physical and mechanical characteristics significantly different from those of civil, more common, RE) and, not least, due to the historical and cultural heritage value of these constructions. Some important interventions have been carried out recently and others are underway or in the planning stage, and there is a constant lack of information and technical data on the best ways to intervene. To fill this gap, the state of conservation of the RE defensive structures and the results of interventions carried out throughout history in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula are being assessed. This article sets out the framework of the subject, identifies the material and construction techniques, and recognizes the main causes of its deterioration and decay. With special focus on the most frequent damages detected in historic military defensive structures built with RE, it analyses and discuss the most common techniques that have been used for the repair and conservation of these particular structures.
Keywords
Built heritage; Earth construction; Repair; Building technology; Preservation
Subject
Engineering, Architecture, Building and Construction
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Comments (0)
We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.
Leave a public commentSend a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
