ABSTRACT

Abstract The maturity method in which the strength increase of cement concrete is expressed as a function of an integral of the curing period and temperature of the concrete has often been applied to its strength prediction. For the purpose of the application of the maturity method to the compressive strength prediction for lightweight polyester mortars using an unsaturated polyester resin as a binder, the lightweight polyester mortars with various catalyst and accelerator contents, are prepared, tested for compressive strength, and the datum temperatures for the maturity equations are estimated. The maturity is calculated by using the maturity equations with the estimated datum temperatures. The compressive strengths of the lightweight polyester mortars are predicted from the maturitycompressive strength relationships. Keywords : Accelerator content, catalyst content, compressive strength, datum temperature, maturity equation, maturity method, lightweight polyester mortar

1 Introduction

In recent years, technical innovations in the construction industry have progressed to a great extent, and the development of high-performance or multifunctional construction materials has actively been conducted to cope with such innovations. In particular, this trend is remarkable in the new frontiers of the building industry, i.e., superhighrise buildings and long-span structures in advanced countries. There are high-strength lightweight concretes in the building materials toward which a great interest is oriented in such background. The high-strength lightweight concretes are divided to two types : high-strength lightweight cement concrete and polymer concrete. This paper is related to high-strength lightweight polyester mortar as a model of high-strength lightweight polymer concrete. The objective of this investigation is to try the compressive strength

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