Experimental investigation on utilization of dried marble slurry as fine aggregate in lean masonry mortars

Dried marble slurry has been experimentally evaluated as a potential replacement of river sand in the production of masonry mortars. In the present study, river sand was replaced in the range of 0-40% to prepare a cement mortar mix of volumetric proportion 1:6. Workability, fresh bulk density, compressive strength, tensile bond strength, drying shrinkage, hardened bulk and apparent densities, ultrasonic pulse velocity, water absorption and porosity were assessed. It was found that replacing 20% of river sand by dried marble slurry resulted in enhancement in mechanical properties with no change in water absorption and porosity of mortar mixes. Drying shrinkage is a concern which increased by 23% on usage of marble slurry as fine aggregate. That is why the utilization of such mortars should be limited for masonry activities only. An attempt was made to link the behaviour of such mortars with the quantity of particles finer than 0.075mm present in the mixes. An easy to apply methodology of on-site examination to determine the suitability of mortar mixes for masonry purposes by estimating particles finer than 0.075mm and fresh mortar bulk density was also validated.