Hygric and mechanical parameters of ternary binder based plasters lightweighted by expanded perlite

Abstract

This article is focused on modern plasters with improved thermal insulating ability. The studied plasters were composed of lime, cement, ceramic powder, expanded perlite and silica sand. Regarding the matrix, three kinds of binders were used. Lime was partially replaced by ceramic powder. These waste materials show good pozzolanic reactivity and thus bring economic and ecological benefits. Portland cement was added as a third component to the mixture for the purpose of improving mechanical performance of the studied plasters. In this article, mechanical properties of designed plasters are presented. It was proved that matrix strengthening brought positive effect and eliminated the deterioration of mechanical behaviour; the final values of compressive strength were over 3 MPa. Due to desired high porosity of the studied plasters, their durability can be strongly affected by presence of the water. Therefore, in this article, the hygric parameters were studied too. Namely, the water absorption coefficient, apparent moisture diffusivity, the water vapour diffusion resistance factor and sorption and desorption isotherms belong among studied hygric characteristics. In this article, pore size distribution curves, which affect the discussed parameters, are presented.