Study of some consolidation treatments for lime mortars

Abstract eng:
In the domain of heritage buildings conservation, interventions must be designed, whenever possible, to maintain existing materials instead of their replacement by new ones. The cohesion loss is a common problem of ancient mortars due to their characteristics (low mechanical resistance and high porosity) and to the exposure to deterioration agents. Re-establishment of mortars cohesion through consolidation treatments is an option to be explored, as similar treatments have been used for the same purpose in other materials with comparable properties and anomalies, such as stone. Furthermore, this option is consistent with the principle of preserving existing materials. Consolidation products penetrate in depth and form new substances within the contact areas of the material particles, re-establishing adhesion between them. Consolidation action causes improvement of cohesion and mechanical resistance increase of decayed material. Therefore, the assessment of its potential effectiveness should focus on changes in properties that might directly reflect the presence of a consolidation action and the strengthening capacity of the product. The in-depth consolidation is also an important parameter to be taken into account when assessing consolidation effectiveness and its importance is widely recognised and accepted. In the present work the consolidation action promoted by 4 products was studied: 2 inorganic products based on lime and 2 ethyl silicate based products. The consolidant treatments were applied on lime mortar specimens by direct contact capillary absorption. The consolidating effect was assessed through porosity, compressive and flexural strength, drilling resistance and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests and a joint analysis of the output data was performed in order to understand macro and micro-structural changes due to treatments.

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