Assessment of the mechanical performance of three varieties of pine needles as natural reinforcement of adobe

[Display omitted] •Pine needle can be used as vegetable fibre for adobe bricks.•Mechanical performance of adobe bricks is defined by the pine needle ductility.•Fibres pn1 and pn2 show better mechanical behaviour than pn3.•Adobe brick with pn1 shows high kinematic ductility.•Adobe brick with pn1 shows the best elasto-plastic behaviour. Different types of vegetable fibres are used in the manufacture of adobe bricks to control the cracking during the drying process. In Spain, and in many other countries of the world, the fibre commonly used in the manufacture of adobe bricks is cereal straw, usually wheat. The purpose of this research is to determine the behaviour of three types of pine needles as a vegetable fibre in the adobe mass: Pinus halepensis (pn1), pinea (pn2) and pinaster (pn3), all of them abundant in the Iberian Peninsula. The results obtained show their viability, providing high resistance and ductility to the adobe.