Generating water/binder ratio -to- strength curves for cement mortar used in Masnory walls

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2020-02, Vol.233, p.117249, Article 117249
• Main Author: ElNemr, Amr
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cement; Compressive strength; Mortar; Silica fume; Tensile strength; Water-to-binder ratio
• ISSN: 0950-0618; 1879-0526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117249

•A wide variety of wastes available and encourage to be encountered inside the construction industry.•The mineral admixtures such as silica fume, fly ash and granular blast furnace slag etc. were widely investigated.•An optimum of 15% cement replacement was deduced to enhance the hardened state of concrete with water –to- binder ratio of 0.35.•The validity of Abram’s law presenting the relation between water-to-cement ratio and the compressive strength of concrete as well as cement mortar were extensively studied and ensure estimating the compressive strength at 7, 28 till 365 days.•Empirical equations are developed to predict the strength of cement mortar for different water-to-binder ratio and different binder-to-fine aggregate ratio. In this paper, influence water/binder ratio on the hardened state properties of cement mortar was investigated after 28 days curing period as assigned by ACI Standard. From the results, empirical equations have been generated evaluating the strength of cement mortar mixes with various water/binder (w/b) ratios. It was deduced that Abram’s law is valid most of cement mortars established. The cement mortar consists of ordinary Portland cement with 15% partially replacement by silica fume, fine aggregate (sand) with varying portions of 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 and different water binder ratios ranged from 0.4 to 0.8. From results, a relationship between split tensile strength and compressive strength of cement mortar has been reached. Furthermore, it was observed, from the results; that a reduction in compressive and tensile strength of cement mortar, while, increasing the water-to-binder ratio higher than 0.5 in case of cement: sand of 1:3. While, this effect was deduced at water-to binder ratio of 0.7 when using cement: sand of 1:4, 1:5, and 1:6. It is concluded that the optimized water-to-binder ratio required for achieving workable cement mortar was mainly based on cement: sand portions. Moreover, empirical equations were generated to predict the relevant compressive and tensile strength to the w/b ratio and cement: sand ratio for practical. The predicted values revealed a good agreement with the experimental results observed.