Physical-Mechanical Experimental Tests on Adobe Bricks Reinforced With Hemp Fibres

The man’s evolution history is marked by technological advances, but shared by a constant search for a place to live, capable of providing shelter and protection. For thousands of years, man transformed environment by using natural products through techniques used in geographically unpopular areas or in quite different historical contexts. Combined with wood, raw earthwork has a millennial history as long as the evolution of man himself, but much longer than that of wood, which is subjected to natural degradation cycles. If land-based testimonies are present everywhere in the world, from the ziqqurat in Syria to the Mali mosques, from monuments in Nigeria to Yemen buildings, from homes in New Mexico to urban aggregates in Morocco, today it is necessary to resume and rediscover from the scientific point of view these techniques, so to understand materials and processing necessary to preserve and protect this immense historical and social heritage. Only through a modern experimentation, characterised by theoretical researches and tests, it is possible to define "engineering" criteria to be complemented with restoration techniques, which allow to intervene to protect these historic assets.

Keywords: Natural fibres, adobe bricks, hemp, experimental tests, ductile behaviour.