Durability of natural pozzolan-based mortar exposed to sulfate attack

Abstract

Cement is a strategic commodity in the civil engineering for the construction of reinforced concrete structures. But its production generates around 5% of toxic gases such as CO₂ responsible for environmental degradation. Furthermore, cement industry is a consumer sector of non-renewable energy. The use in the cement of natural additions is a solution to reduce the CO₂ gas and the cost of production. The purpose of this work is the study of a sustainable building material: natural pozzolan Beni-saf (PNB) incorporated to mortars exposed to sulfate attack (5% Na₂SO₄). The loss of mass, monitoring the pH reading of each attack solution as well as specimens dimensions are different tests to study the durability of mortars made with 10, 20 and 30% of natural pozzolan. The result derived from this research is that pozzolan improves mortars resistance to sodium sulfate environment.

Keywords: natural pozzolan; chemical attack; durability; sodium sulfate; pH; mass loss