Flow and strength properties of masonry cement mortar containing high-volume fly ash

Abstract

Masonry mortar is one of the mostly used building materials in construction industry; as nearly all walls made with bricks are finished with mortar. This mortar is generally made with cement and sand. Conventionally masonry mortar with fly ash are often made with Ordinary Portland Cement. In this study, mortar mixes were made by replacing the masonry cement up to 50% of fly ash with an increment of its content by 10%. Six mortar mixes with 1:4 volumetric cement-to-aggregate ratios using natural sand were then tested to obtain the flow and strength properties. The results found that the masonry mortars incorporating with fly ash had superior properties as compared to the mortar without ash content (control specimen). The addition of fly ash increases the flow, particularly when the replacement content was above 40%. Mortar with high volume fly ash has also shown to attain a comparable strength with that of the control mix. Considering a better workability and acceptable strength properties, the results demonstrated that high volume replacement of fly ash is a viable alternative for producing environmental friendly masonry cement mortar.