Publication:

Evaluación de normas y reglamentos de cosntrucciones en tierra cruda, que tengan en cuenta el comportamiento de las estructuras ante un evento sísmico y estrategias para reducir su vulnerabilidad.

Earth construction is one of the oldest construction techniques ; it has been used for thousands of years and has evolved to improve its structural behaviour under seismic events. Several of these existing constructions belong to the cultural and historic heritage of their countries and the new ones are an economic and ecological solution for dwellings. Although in the colombian standards the construction of new earth buildings is no permitted, the understanding of the behavior of materials and elements of earth construction is necessary for several purposes: i) for the evaluation and possible reinforcement of existing buildings and ii) for the reconstruction of new elements or in the future, the construction of new buildings. This paper presents a collection of the qualitative and quantitative tests that are current practice on materials characterization for the construction of seismic resistant structures of rammed earth and adobe bricks. In addition, it deals also with some of the building practices that guarantee a good behavior under a seismic event. All these aspects are based on the recommendations or requirements of the following documents: this the standards and codes of Peru, Chile, Morocco, the United States and New Zealand and the construction manuals of: Germany, France and San Salvador.