Interaction analysis and optimal design of composite action of plastered straw bale

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of cement- and earth-plastered straw bale walls against the appropriate vertical loads.Design methodology approach - The effects of contact between two common types of plasters and the stacked straw bale by the optimal design analysis have been assessed in this work with the use of finite element method.Findings - Cement- and earth-plastered straw bale walls have shown adequate resistance against the appropriate vertical loads and showed that the earth-plaster can bear higher stress than the cement plastered straw bale. There is the implication that the collapse or response of the earth-straw bale wall will be significantly higher compared to that of cement-straw bale wall.Practical implications - The stress stability obtained of the analytical walls is adequate after using the best fit variables for the wall height and thickness.Originality value - The paper shows that the allowable stresses of 70.14 kN m2 for cement plastered straw bale wall and 73.14 kN m2 for earth-plastered straw bale wall are higher than the calculated stress values using SAP2000 of 18.836 and 64.2 kN m2 for cement plastered straw bale wall, respectively.