Mortars with mud, gypsum and lime as binder have, since ancient times, been used for very different applications. The characterisation of these historic mortars was until 1970–1980 mostly based on traditional wet chemical analyses but the interpretation of these results is difficult and often impossible without a good knowledge of the nature of the different mortar components. More recently dev...

We present an efficient approach for preconditioning systems arising in multiphase flow in a parallel domain decomposition framework known as the mortar mixed finite element method. Subdomains are coupled together with appropriate interface conditions using mortar finite elements. These conditions are enforced using an inexact Newton–Krylov method, which traditionally required the solution of n...

In this work, nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) has been evaluated as a potential reinforcement for cement mortar composites. Two types of vegetable fibres with different composition and properties (cellulose content and microfibrillar angle), sisal, and cotton linters pulps, were initially characterised in order to assess their reinforcing capability. Sisal pulp was found to be most suitable as ...

Submitted: Jul 2, 2013; Accepted: Aug 12, 2013; Published: Aug 29, 2013 Abstract: Concrete mix design involves determination of relative proportions of powder contained in the binder system, granular aggregates and water. The theory of particle packing (TPP) concepts can be used for rational proportioning of concrete mixtures analytically based on the measured properties of individual ingredien...

This paper describes an experimental investigation into the pore structure of cement mortar using mercury porosimeter. Ordinary Portland cement, manufactured sand, and natural sand were used. The porosity of the manufactured sand mortar is higher than that of natural sand at the same mix proportion; on the contrary, the probable pore size and threshold radius of manufactured sand mortar are fin...

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of substitution of cement by three different mineral additions, on the mortar rheological and mechanical properties. This experimentation, considers the fineness of mineral additives with a constant workability. Ordinary Portland Cement was partially replaced by different percentages of slag, pozzolana and metakaolin of 10, 20 and 30%. The ob...

This paper investigates the effect of fineness of fly ash on the performance of cement mortar. Fly ash from thermal plant is used as partial substitute for cement. Fly ash is used as received and also processed by grinding. The study involves four replacement levels of fly ash into cement at 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% for each mix design. Mortar cubes are tested for strength, water absorption and so...

In this work, we studied the effect of carboxylic acid on the rheological properties of a high-alumina cement mortar (CH45) produced by the Algerian firm REFRACTAL.The investigated properties are setting time, water consumption, electrical conductivity, pH, density and the compressive strength. The results show a setting time of about 200 min for the acid...

Various materials have been utilized for ground improvement techniques based on geoenvironmental compatibility. The application of lime mortar in soil has been catching the attention of researchers and engineers. However, there is a lack of research on the variation of moisture content in soil affecting the mechanical behavior of lime mortar. In this study, large-scale laboratory tests were con...

Abstract. A BDDC (balancing domain decomposition by constraints) algorithm is developed for elliptic problems with mortar discretizations for geometrically non-conforming partitions in both two and three spatial dimensions. The coarse component of the preconditioner is defined in terms of one mortar constraint for each edge/face which is an intersection of the boundaries of a pair of subdomains...