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Rammed earth construction is built by compacting humid soil into formworks layer by layer, using clay fraction as only binder between the grains, without firing procedure. At this stage, the material is unsaturated, and capillary forces thus act to add cohesion between particles. Indeed, a peculiarity of this material is its high hygroscopic capacity, which allows water vapor to be absorbed and desorbed into the clay matrix. The variation of hydric state in the material leads to a variety of mechanical and thermal properties. Consequently, the complexity in studying this material is due to the strong dependence of many parameters on the moisture content and still few data are available in the literature on this subject for rammed earth materials. A soil used for an existing rammed earth building in Lyon is here characterized in order to determine its hygrothermal properties. Earth conductivity was firstly characterized in a reference dry state, then the influence of humidity variations was investigated. Sorption and desorption isotherms were determined to investigate the ability of the material to store and release humidity. Thermal conductivities were measured at different relative humidity, to put into evidence the influence of environmental conditions.

In recent years, polymer clay nanocomposites have been attracting considerable interests in polymers science because of their advantages. There are many scientists who researched about this kind of material and demonstrated that when polymer matrix was added to little weight of clay, properties were enhanced considerably. Because clay is a hydrophilic substance so it is difficult to use as filler in polymer matrix having hydrophobic nature, so clay needs to be modified to become compatible with polymer. In this study, poly(ethylene oxide) was used as a new modifier for clay to replace some traditional ionic surfactants such as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary alkyl ammonium or alkylphosphonium cations having the following disadvantages: disintegrate at high temperature, catalyze polymer degradation, andmake nanoproducts colorific, and so forth. In order to evaluate modifying effect of poly(ethylene oxide),modified clay products were characterize d by X-ray spectrum. Then organoclay was used to prepare nanocomposite based on unsaturated polyester. Morphology and properties of nanocomposites were measure d by Xray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, tensile strength, and thermal stability. The results showed that clay galleries changed to intercalated state in the nanocomposites. Properties of nanocomposites were improved a lot when the loading of the organoclay was used at 1 phr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]