Effect of Mortar Properties on Strength of Masonry

Effect of Mortar Properties on Strength of Masonry
Author: Cyrus Charles Fishburn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 56
Release: 1961
Genre: Masonry
ISBN:

The physical properties of mortars, the bond strength of the mortars to masonry units, and the structural strength of concrete masonry and composite masonry walls containing the mortars are discussed and compared. All of the mortars were tempered to as wet a consistency as could be conveniently handled by the mason. The compressive strength of the walls increased, in general, with the compressive strength of the mortar. The racking and flexural strengths of the walls increased with the bond strength of the mortar. The strength of bond test specimens tended to increase with the compressive strength of the wet consistency mortars that were used. However, bond strength appeared to be the dominant factor affecting the racking and flexural strength of the walls. Increase in both bond strength and wall strength with compressive strength of the mortar was not proportional to the relative compressive strengths of the type N and type S mortars. The stiffness of walls subjected to compressive and flexural loads increased with the bond and compressive strength of the mortars. However, the stiffness of walls subjected to flexural loads appeared to be more dependent upon the number of bed joints in the tensile face and on their extension in bond than upon the bending strains in the masonry materials.

The Influence of Some Factors on the Tensile Bond Strength of Masonry

The Influence of Some Factors on the Tensile Bond Strength of Masonry
Author: S. J. Lawrence
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1994
Genre: Adhesion
ISBN:

The paper describes an investigation into the effect that sand type, mix proportions, brick suction and air entrainer have on tensile bond strength between cement mortars and clay bricks. The investigation was designed as a factorial experiment and uses the analysis of variance to exploit the power of this technique in identifying significant factors and interactions. The bond wrench was used to measure bond strength on nine replicates for each of six sands, five mixes and three bricks, making 90 different combinations and 810 individual bond measurements. The mix compositions include one with air entrainer added according to the manufacturer's instructions and one with air entrainer overdosed ten times. Results show that all the main factors are significant but that some unexpected interactions exist. In particular, one of the sands performed badly with one of the five mixes and yet none of the measured sand properties indicated any significant difference from the other sands. Strengths for the mixes where air entrainer was used confirm a reduction in strength for normal usage and a large drop in strength for overdosing.