Mortars provide the continuity required for the stability and exclusion of weather elements in\nmasonry assemblies. But because of the heterogeneity of the mortar, its mechanism of behaviour\nunder different load effects is dependent on the properties of the constituents of the mortar. The\naim of paper is to determine the effect sand grading for various cement-sand-lime mortar designations\n(BS) and strength classes (EC) on the compressive strength and stiffness of mortar. Two silica\nsands; HST 95 and HST60 were used to make mortars in three strength classes: M2, M4 and M6,\ncorresponding to mortar designations iv, iii and ii respectively. The results show that mortar\nmade with the HST60 sand (coarser grading) usually resulted in mortar with a higher compressive\nstrength and stiffness. The One Way ANOVA analysis of both compressive strength and stiffness at\na significance level of 5% on the effect of sand grading on the two parameters also shows that they\nare both significant. There is also strong evidence of a linear correlation between the stiffness and\ncompressive strength. The results indicate that in order to replicate full scale behaviour of masonry\nat model scales, the grading of fine aggregate in the models should be similar so as to properly\nmodel full scale behavior.
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