The Effects of Sepiolite on the Properties of Portland Cement Mortar

Shrinkage crack is a major concern for cement materials, especially for flat structures such as Korean On-Dol floor system, flooring for garages, and wall. One of the methods to reduce the adverse effects of shrinkage cracking is to reinforce cement materials with shot randomly distributed fibers. The efficiency of inorganic fibrous material to arresting cracks in cementitious composites was studied. Cement materials reinforced with five different qualities of inorganic fibrous material were tested. Contents of inorganic fibrous material were 1.0 kg, 1.5 kg, 2.0 kg, 2.5 kg, 3.0 kg by weight of cement mortar and C : S types of cement mortar were 1 : 3 and 1:4. W/ C were 60% and 80%. Cement mortar of inorganic fibrous material reinforcement showed an ability to reduce the crack width and crack length significantly as compared to unreinforced cement mortar. 40%similar to 60% drop in shrinkage crack of 1: 4 cement mortar with 1.5 kg over was observed.