New Method for Historic Rammed-earth Wall Characterization: The Almohade Ramparts of Malaga and Seville

Abstract

The goal of this research is to propose a new method of characterizing rammed-earth walls. Based on their historic building materials properties, five broad test groups were established for the characterization: chemical and mineralogical composition, physical properties, mechanical properties, particle size distribution, and dating. These determinations can, in turn, be grouped into two different types: instrumental techniques such as XRF, XRD, and SEM-EDX, as well as adaptations of standard methods (mainly UNE-EN standards) for application to these materials. As case studies where the proposed method is applied, we present our research on the rammed-earth walls in the ramparts of Seville and Malaga (Spain), clearly showing the method's capacity for comparing and differentiating different rammed-earth walls.

Multi-Criteria Parametric Verifications for Stability Diagnosis of Rammed-Earth Historic Urban Ramparts Working as Retaining Walls

“…However, the urban development has led to Macarena Street being annexed to the fortified enclosure on the west side. It is made of rammed earth, whose density was assumed to be 20 kN/m 3 according to physical tests on cored samples from several sector of the Seville city walls [11,35,36], which are in fact consistent with similar results in the literature [10,37,38]. [39,40].…”

“…With this approach, through a new algorithm, it is possible to select and design the most appropriate technical solutions for each case based on the types of displacements analyzed. Other approaches focus more on the analysis of the original materials themselves, using a set of physical-mechanical tests designed specifically for the wall, which allow the subsequent selection of the most compatible materials for restoration [10,11]. The proposal for the conservation of the Pingyao Wall (China) follows a similar approach.…”

Rammed Earth Construction: A Proposal for a Statistical Quality Control in the Execution Process

“…Analytical techniques based on XRD [39] are not essential, although they can provide qualitative and semi-quantitative information on soil minerals, such as the type of clays. Other techniques, such as X-ray fluorescence and/or X-ray microfluorescence, enable the identification of the chemical composition of such material.…”

Study of Pigments from the Colonial Convent of Actopan, Hidalgo, Mexico

“…The purpose of characterizing the components of a painting is to answer questions such as the identification of an artist's color palette or the identification of the hands of illustrators in ancient breviaries [14], determining authenticity [13,15] or provenance [15], identifying the alteration products [16,17], and deducing the mechanisms of deterioration [17] in order to determine the causes that produced it, and designing new treatment methods to control the action of deterioration agents [1,14]. Other reasons are to obtain historical information on the relationships between populations [14,[18][19][20]; information to understand the mineralogical background of certain geological areas [20,21], trade routes [6,14,22], and the migration of cultural groups [23]; and to provide knowledge of technological evolution. Studies on the physicochemical and microstructural aspects and the unexpected deterioration of wall paintings caused by environmental impacts after their release have recently been carried out [24].…”