Adobe buildings

It is almost paradoxical that in the history of mankind composite materials were earlier used than their "homogeneous" rivals. The earliest "engineering materials" were bone, wood and clay. Wood is a composite of matrix lignin and a cellulosic reinforcement bone is a natural composite where fibres of hydroxyapatite reinforce the collagen matrix and the oldest building material was adobe clay as a matrix, reinforced by vegetable fibres. After the industrial revolution other composites were added reinforced rubber, reinforced concrete, reinforced asphalt, etc. 

Clay was commonly used for making pottery in prehistory. Silts are sometimes used in ceramics and are a basic component in building materials such as mud daub, mud bricks, adobe, and fired brick. Sods, soil, and other sediments were used in the construction of earthworks by prehistoric peoples for walls, tombs, and other monuments. For example, the early civilizations of China used rammed earth to build house foundations and enormous city walls. Silt was packed down in wood frames using heavy wooden rammers and layer after layer built up. Parts of the Great Wall of China were built using rammed earth more than 2,000 years ago and remain standing today. 

A BRICK or building material of sun dried CLAY or earth and straw. A structure made of adobe BRICKS. 

Adobe - A building material made from clay, straw, and water, formed into blocks, and dried used traditionally in the southwestern U.S. 

Table 2.7 Base scores for masonry buildings other than adobe...

Dobie. A hand-shaped clay building brick before it has been fired from ADOBE (q.v.). In USA a dobie is a lump of raw fired clay. 

Composite materiak have been in nse for thousands of years. Ancient peoples used straw and rocks to strengthen adobe bricks for building shelters, and concrete reinforced with steel rods is used extensively in the construction industry. Only recently have composites been introduced into electronic applications. In particular, the demands for improved thermal management and higher packaging density have driven the development of composite materials. Today, several composite materials are available to meet the needs of electronic packaging engineers. 

Buildings with dry stone or clay, adobe, or mud walls... 

Adobe Confined masonry Finite elements Load-bearing masonry Masonry building reinforced concrete Reinforced masonry Seismic analysis Umeinforced masonry... 

The composition and quantity of earthquake debris will vary based on the nature of the built environment affected as well as the severity of the earthquake. For example, a community with predominantly timber buildings will have a different waste composition than a community that builds houses from adobe bricks. Or a city with poor building standards affected by a moderate earthquake may generate more debris than a city that has good building standards affected by a much larger earthquake. It is important to understand both the composition and the quantity of... 

The idea that, if a single available material cannot fulfill a set of desired properties, then a mixture or a compound of that material with another one might be satisfactory is likely as old as mankind. Adobe, likely the oldest building material, is made by blending sand, clay, water and some kind of fibrous material like straw or sticks, then molding the mixture into bricks and drying in the sun. It is surely one of the oldest examples of reinforcement of a "plastic" material, moist clay, with natural fibers that was already in use in the Late Bronze Age, nearly everywhere in the Middle East, North Africa, South Europe and southwestern North America. In a sense, the basic principle of reinforcement, i.e., to have a stiffer dispersed material to support the load transmitted by a softer matrix, is already in the adobe brick. Therefore, the "discovery" of natural rubber reinforcement by fine powdered materials, namely carbon black, in the dawn of the twentieth century surely proceeded from the same idea. 

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