Experimental Assessment of the Dynamic Hygrothermal and Mechanical Behavior of Compressed Earth Block Walls in a Tropical Humid Climate

This study experimentally investigates the mechanical and dynamic hygrothermal be-havior of compressed earth block (CEB) walls subjected to simulated climatic cycles representative of a tropical humid environment. Four formulations were tested: raw soil (D0), soil + kenaf fibers (DF), soil + fibers + cement (DFC), and soil + fibers + cement + slag (DFCL). Performance was assessed in an instrumented bi-climatic cell, enabling the de-termination of thermal and hygroscopic attenuation factors and time lags, comple-mented by standardized uniaxial compression and three-point bending tests. The results indicate that DFCL achieved a compressive strength of about 10 MPa, nearly twice that of DF (~6 MPa), exceeding the threshold required for buildings up to R+1. Regarding hygrothermal behavior, DFCL exhibited the highest thermal attenuation factor (2.24) and a hygroscopic attenuation factor of 2.05, with corresponding time lags of ~0.9 h (thermal) and ~1.1 h (hygroscopic). These performances highlight superior thermal in-ertia and moisture regulation, well-suited for the constraints of tropical humid climates. Overall, the findings confirm the potential of kenaf fiber–reinforced, cement–slag stabi-lized CEBs as a sustainable construction solution, particularly for load-bearing walls in hot and humid regions.