ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1708488
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Structural Solutions and Materials for Sustainable Construction PracticesView all articles
Gypsum stabilization for enhancing the compressive behavior of rammed earth: experimental and statistical assessment
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- 2Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
- 3Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
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Gypsum has historically been used as an additive in rammed earth construction to enhance its mechanical properties. However, its application has declined in modern practice, and scientific literature on gypsum-stabilized rammed earth remains limited. This study investigates the effectiveness of gypsum as a stabilizer to improve the compressive behavior of rammed earth, presenting it as a sustainable alternative to Portland cement, which, despite its widespread use, entails higher environmental and economic costs. To assess the influence of gypsum, uniaxial compression tests were performed on rammed earth specimens with varying gypsum contents (0 % to 15 %). The results demonstrate significant increases in compressive strength (up to 130 %) and elastic modulus (up to 262 %) with gypsum inclusion, with the highest values recorded for the 15 % gypsum-stabilized mixture (3.2 MPa and 267 MPa, respectively). Statistical analysis, including analysis of variance (ANOVA), confirmed the significance of these enhancements, with only the difference in elastic modulus between the 10 % and 15 % mixtures showing no statistical significance. These findings highlight gypsum as a viable eco-friendly solution for improving the mechanical performance of rammed earth construction.
Keywords: Rammed earth, Gypsum, stabilization, Mechanical characterization, Compressive Strength
Received: 18 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ávila, Fagone, Gallego, Puertas and Ranocchiai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fernando Ávila, favila@mes.upv.es
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