HYGRO-MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF VEGETABLE CONCRETE MATERIALS: INFLUENCE OF THE INTER-PARTICULAR POROSITY

The aim of this paper is to study the hygro-mechanical behaviour of "vegetable concrete" materials taking into account their mixture proportions and their microstructural features. Flexural and compression tests have been performed for two cases (autogenous and desiccations conditions) and shrinkage strains have been measured during drying. It is shown that the hygro-mechanical behaviour depends in particular on the inter-particular porosity. On the one hand the shrinkage strains due to drying of wood decrease with increasing inter-particular porosity and on the other hand the compressive and flexural strengths decrease with increasing inter-particular porosity and drying.