Cob is a vernacular earth-building technique which has encountered renewed interest for its low environmental impact compared to conventional construction materials. Relevant mechanical characterisation is essential for cob building structure design and calculation. This paper presents an improved laboratory procedure to better the characterisation of representative cob samples. Samples prepared by four different methods were compared to representative cob wall elements, by measuring shrinkage ratio, pore size distribution, uniaxial compressive strength and Young’s modulus. The preliminary laboratory testing provides satisfactory results but needs to be validated with other cob mixtures.

中文翻译：

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进一步开发实验室程序以评估玉米棒的机械性能

芯棒是一种土方土方建筑技术，与传统建筑材料相比，它因其对环境的低影响而引起了新的兴趣。相关的机械特性对于芯棒建筑结构设计和计算至关重要。本文提出了一种改进的实验室程序，以更好地表征代表性玉米芯样品。通过测量收缩率，孔径分布，单轴抗压强度和杨氏模量，将通过四种不同方法制备的样品与代表性的芯壁元件进行了比较。初步的实验室测试提供了令人满意的结果，但需要与其他玉米芯混合物进行验证。