Mineralogical Composition of Some Egyptian Sedimentary Aggregates and Their Suitability for Cementitious Repairing Mortars

Abstract

Aggregates are considered as major constituents of the total volume of concrete and cementitious mortars. These aggregates must be hard, durable, with suitable mineral composition and chemically non-reactive, especially if used for specific uses like repairing mortar industry. Continuous rapid urbanization in Egypt was followed by the appearance of concrete deteriorating problems. Evaluation of some sediment as aggregates for repairing mortar industry is an interesting idea by performing some physical, mechanical, chemical and mineralogical tests providing the Egyptian and National specifications. Outside Egypt several studies focused on behavior of natural aggregates with the methods of concrete repairing using high quality natural aggregates as cementitious mortar while, in Egypt there are lacking in these studies and most of studies focused only on repairing of famous or archeological sites.