Influence of the setting process and the formulation on the drying of hemp concrete

Hemp concrete is a sustainable material that becomes successful in the field of building construction. It is made out of hemp shivs mixed with a lime based binder and water and manufactured through three processes: spraying, moulding or mechanical mixing and tamping. Experiments were performed under natural and forced convection on several instrumented blocks during the curing time. The instrumentation (thermocouples, humidity sensors, weight-scales) allows investigating the drying kinetics and the moisture diffusivity and apprehending the hygrothermal behaviour of the material. It is observed that manufacturing process influences the initial water content and the final density whereas the hygrothermal behaviour depends on the material formulation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.