The requirements of conservators who take care of historical monuments are that the materials for rehabilitation of old renders should have a composition as similar to the historical materials as possible and should provide improvement in durability. Fine and coarse sepiolite and synthetic zeolite pellets were chosen as additives in the development of lime mortars for conservation work, due to their unique adsorption properties providing water to the mortar system and acting as water reservoirs in conditions of low humidity. Flexural and compressive strength and the dynamic modulus of elasticity were studied at 28, 90 and 180 days of curing. Addition of both fine and coarse sepiolite and zeolite pellets caused improvement of mechanical strength of mortars, clearly evident at later ages of curing. Elasticity modulus ranged from 2.3 GPa to 3.6 GPa relating to a high deformation capability of mortars and confirming their suitability for use in conservation work., Slávka Andrejkovičová, Eduardo Ferraz, Ana L. Velosa, António S. Silva and Fernando Rocha., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Three different metakaolins processed by a Portuguese factory were studied aiming to assess the influence of chemical and mineralogical composition of metakaolin on mortar characteristics. Mineralogical analysis of both the fine and clay fractions was carried out by X-ray diffraction. Chemical composition (major elements) was analyzed by X-ray fluorescence. Mineralogical composition reveals some significant differences between the studied samples, in both analyzed fractions, metakaolin 2 being richer in kaolinitic minerals. From a chemical point of view, siliceous content is always high (aroun d 60 %) as well as Al2O3 content (around 30 %); once again metakaolin 2 is the one richer in Al2O3 and poorer in sodium and potassium. Metakaolin from the three different batches was incorporated in lime mortars in order to produce a pozzolanic reaction and hence enable them to harden in high relative humidity conditions or, when access to CO2 is limited, as in the case of mortars supporting glazed tiles. Mortars with the same volum etric ratio were tested for flexural and compressive strength at ages of 28 and 90 days, and the module of elasticity was dete rmined. A relation between the mechanical strength achieved by lime mortars with the addition of metakaolin from different batches and metakaolin mineral and chemical composition was assessed. The knowledge of the influence of the metakaolin com position on the strength of the mortars is an important step in improving their performance and extending their application., Ana Luisa Velosa, Fernando Rocha and Rosário Veiga., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) represents one of the key mechanical properties used to characterize rocks along with the other important properties of porosity and density. While several studies have proved the accuracy of artificial intelligence in modeling UCS, some authors believe that the use of artificial intelligence is not practical in predicting. The present paper highlights the ability of an artificial neural network (ANN) as an accurate and revolutionary method with regression models, as a conventional statistical analysis, to predict UCS within carbonate rocks and mortar. Thus, ANN and multiple linear regressions (MLR) were applied to estimate the UCS values of the tested samples. For experimentation we carried out ultrasonic measurements on cubic samples before testing uniaxial compressive strength perpendicularly to the stress direction. The models were performed to correlate effective porosity, density and ultrasonic velocity to the UCS measurements. The resulting models would allow the prediction of carbonate rocks and mortar’s UCS values usually determined by laborious experiments. Although the results demonstrate the usefulness of the MLP method as a simple, practical and economical model, the ANN model is more accurate.