Initial Developments towards a Unified Protocol of Mortar Preparation for Testing within the SUBLime MSCA Doctoral Network

Abstract

The SUBLime Project (SUstainable Building Lime applications via Circular Economy and Biomimetic Approaches) is a collaborative and interdisciplinary project that brings together 6 academic beneficiaries and 11 industrial partners via a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action European Training Network – Innovative Training Network. The network provides grounds for research and training opportunities and combines knowledge of academic and industrial members, who craft the future of new construction and conservation of built heritage using lime-based materials. The project covers the main features of lime-based applications in masonry construction, including material characterization, numerical modelling of multi-physics behaviour and development of innovative and sustainable lime-based solutions with added functionality. The protocol of mortar preparation for testing is used by participants of the SUBLime Project as fundamental guidance on making masonry mortars. The protocol focuses on important aspects of mortar preparation, such as conditioning of constituent materials, mixing and compaction procedures, curing of mortars. Well-detailed descriptions of these aspects are provided to ensure the proper execution of experiments. This comprehensive approach would enable the validation of non-standard experimental methods and repeatability of results of testing of different lime, lime-cement and cement-based mortars.