Investigation of properties of mechanical and physical of repair mortars containing fly ash and zeolite

Lime mortars have been used as common construction materials for most of the historical structures built with stones and bricks. Ingredients used in the mortars, as well as physical and mechanical features of mortars, play a significant role during the earthquakes and the structural response of historical buildings. According to the literature, the mortar samples taken from historical structures demonstrated that various materials were utilized as a binder. In this study, considering the general characteristics of the historical building mortars (components and ratios) obtained from the literature, alternative repair mortars were produced and some mechanical and physical characteristics of these samples were examined. In repair mortar mixtures, slaked lime was used as binder while zeolite and fly ash were used as pozzolan and brick fractures and river sand were used as fine aggregate. Additionally, in the restoration mortar mixture, pozzolanas were utilized with the lime in varied ratios (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%). In the alternative restoration mortar, mixtures the proportion of binding and aggregate (b/a) was used as ½. Physical and mechanical experiments were conducted on the samples which were taken from fresh and hardened alternative restoration mortar samples. The obtained pressure and bending strength results were observed within the acceptable ranges. In addition, it was found that the addition of fly ash significantly improved the capillarity of the mortar.