Résumé
In our present society, raw earth presents an efficient alternative as an energy-saving building material to cope with climate and environmental issues. Nevertheless, it has a sensitivity to water, due to the presence of fines, which has a direct effect on its consistency. This can be expressed during desiccation, by shrinkage strains resulting in cracking that begins once the internal tensile stresses developed, due to suction, exceed the tensile strength of the material. In this work, using digital image correlation (DIC) technique, the evolution of the strain of clay samples, from the beginning of shrinkage until the initiation of cracks is treated. In order to understand the origin of cracking, desiccation is studied for different boundary conditions and according to the intrinsic characteristics of the material.