Experimental studies on cement mortar for partial replacement of cement by chemically activated clay

In this paper, an effect of clay on the strength characteristics of cement mortar have been investigated with chemically activated clay as a partial replacement of cement. The clay can be chemically activated with 0.25M NaOH solution and used in the proportions of 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 12.5%, 15%, 17.5% and 20% by weight of cement. The mechanical properties such as Compressive strength, Split tensile strength and Flexural Strength of the clay mortars were studied at the age of 28days. It was found that the strength of the cement mortar has been significantly increased by using chemically activated clay. The optimum clay replacement was found to be 2.5% in the presence of 0.25M NaOH solution. The XRF and FTIR test were done to the chemical composition and identification of minerals. The result of this investigation exhibits significant improvement in mechanical properties with evident from strength test. © 2015 CAFET-INNOVA Technical Society All rights reserved.