Seismic Performance of Innovative Straw Bale Wall Systems

In 2007, PAKSBAB was awarded a research grant from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's (EERI) Endowment Fund. The project’s objective is to determine the performance of earth plastered, load bearing, thin straw bale wall assemblies under in-plane cyclic loading, and the performance of a small full-scale straw bale house using shake table simulation. The site-fabricated bales are not as wide as those used in a typical straw bale building, and the fishing net reinforcement and gravel bag foundation are non-conventional. Therefore these tests do not duplicate previous work, but rather are necessary to establish the capacity of this unique system.


The experimental work is being conducted at the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Equipment Site at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) as a NEES MOM award shared-use project.

The research plan is in 4 parts:

1. Perform component field tests and material tests (ongoing)
2. Perform wall assembly tests of varying configurations (completed June 2008)
3. Conduct shake table tests of a 14’ x 14’ house (Friday, March 27,2009)
4. Analyze the data and write a detailed report and a set of seismic design and construction recommendations to be published in EERI’s World Housing Encyclopedia (January 2010)

Advisory Committee: 

Mark Aschheim, Ph.D., Santa Clara University Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
Ian Buckle, Ph.D., UNR Professor of Civil Engineering, UNR NEES Project Director
Craig Comartin, S.E., EERI Board of Directors and past President, Project Liaison
Darcey Donovan, P.E., PAKSBAB C.E.O., Principal Investigator / Committee Chair
Martin Hammer, Martin Hammer, Architect
David Mar, S.E., Tipping Mar & Associates, Principal
Dan Smith, Daniel Smith & Associates Architects, Principal
Mark Smith, G.E., S.E., Vector Engineering, Inc., Managing Director

To view the activity at the UNR NEES Equipment Site as well as the live tests beginning at 10 am on Friday, March 27, 2009, click here. You can also read the project abstract and download a handout.