Study of indoor performances of a building using Rammed earth

Abstract

Nowadays, many assumptions hold that returning to rammed earth construction could be a solution to the energy challenges of the time. These assumptions are based on the ability of the material to maintain a comfortable indoor temperature regardless of the outdoor climatic variations. However, its influence on the energy performance of buildings remains little explored so far. This paper comes in this order of ideas. It is devoted to study and evaluate the energy efficiency of rammed earth buildings compared to those in concrete structure and masonry envelope. It takes as case study two buildings: one is traditional, entirely built with the technique of rammed earth; the other is constructed of concrete. In order to compare between their performances, we have performed a simulation of the thermal behavior of each by the dynamic thermal simulation software Design Builder.