Evolution of Carbonation Process in Aerial Lime Mortars

ABSTRACT

Aerial lime has been used as binder for centuries and different types of mortars were fabricated using the material during the history around the world. Different properties of the aerial lime mortars are associated with the carbonation process (e.g. chemical, mechanical response), in this sense a set of experiments are proposed to study the progress of the mentioned phenomenon. The research was initialized with the definition of the mortar composition: 1:1.3:3 (lime:water:aggregate). This definition followed an iterative process considering the consistence of the mixture and the bibliographical references. The influence of the size of specimens on the carbonation evolution was evaluated adopting cylinders with five different diameters. They were tested using phenolphthalein spray at three different ages (10, 21 and 90 days). Discs with reduced thickness (~2 mm) were stored in three different environments (standard, high humidity and high CO₂ concentration), samples were collected at different aged (1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28 days) and tested by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results indicate a significant effect of the size of specimens on the carbonation depth and the environment on the evolution of carbonation, with depth variation of ~120%, specimens with reduced dimensions when evaluated with phenolphthalein spray presented a faster reaction as well as the small specimens store in the environment with high CO₂. In both cases the elevated humidity on the initial phase tends to reduce the velocity of the reaction.

Keywords
Aerial lime; mortar; carbonation; thermogravimetric analysis; phenolphthalein