The Effect of Gradation and Grain-Size Properties of Fine Aggregate on the Building Mortars

Abstract

This work is about the effect of fine aggregate properties on the physicomechanical characteristics of hardened mortars. The results indicated that the increase in grain-size of fine aggregate increases the bulk density of hardened mortars. The strength of mortars including limestone fine aggregate is higher than that of the silica-sand. Regardless of the aggregate origin, the strength of the mortars with well-graded fine aggregate for all grain-size is greater than of with uniform fine aggregate. This indicates that grading of fine aggregate increases the strength, while uniformity decreases it.

Keywords

• building mortar
• fine aggregate
• gradation
• strength
• thermal conductivity