Impact Assessment of Lime Additive and Chemical Admixtures on Selected Properties of Mortars

Durability of the structure is still a problem, particularly in masonry. Contemporary European standards of masonry mortar are vague and leave insufficiency for the specification of requirements that should be fulfilled by masonry mortar to ensure durability of walls in certain performance conditions. In the article, there are the results of tests for various composition mortars. There were considered cement and cement - lime mortars, types from A to G (according to classification given in standard PN-B-10104:2005) and cement mortars, types A and B, modified by selected admixtures (two polymers and air entraining/plasticizing admixture). In the paper, the results of tests which include the determination of properties of fresh mortar such as air content, density or consistency (by flow table) as well as properties of hardened mortar such as flexural and compressive strength, adhesive strength of hardened mortars to ceramic elements and water absorption coefficient are presented. The influence of selected admixtures on mortars properties mentioned above are also considered. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.