Influence of Clinoptilolite Replacement on Durability of Cement Mortars

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results of a study on the durability properties of clinoptilolite blended cement mortars. In the study, clinoptilolite was used at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30% replacement by weight of cement while sand and water quantities were kept constant. Fire resistance, abrasion resistance, and shrinkage of the mortars were examined. The results showed that the replacement of cement with clinoptilolite in mortar improved the fire resistance of mortar and that water cooling resulted in higher strength losses than air cooling. Also, the abrasion resistance of mortars increased with an increase in the content of clinoptilolite. After the abrasion tests with a full 352 cycles, although the abrasion loss of control mortar was 2.83%, the abrasion losses of the mortars containing clinoptilolite ranged from 2.12 to 2.81% and the lowest abrasion loss was obtained from the mortars including 30% clinoptilolite. However, the incorporation of clinoptilolite in the mixture caused some increase in the shrinkage values of mortar; at the end of 90 days, the shrinkage value of the mortar specimen with 30% clinoptilolite was approximately 0.14%, whereas that of control mortar was 0.10%.