RESEARCH ARTICLE

The physical,chemical,and microscopic properties of masonry mortars from Alhambra Palace (Spain) in reference to their earthquake resistance

  • Hanifi Binici , 1 ,
  • Selim Kapur 2
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  • 1. Department of Civil Engineering, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Kahramanmaraş 46100, Turkey
  • 2. Departments of Soil Science and Archaeometry, Çukurova University, Adana 01330, Turkey

Received date: 12 Jan 2015

Accepted date: 27 Oct 2015

Published date: 17 Mar 2016

Copyright

2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Al-Andalus mortar is an ancient binding material (lime mortar) that was used for centuries in numerous historical buildings in Al-Andalus,Granada (Spain).The physico-chemical and microscopic properties of Al-Andalusmortars in Granada were studied as part of an investiga-tion into the mineral raw materials present in the territory of Spain.Scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction analyses of eight main types of mortars were performed to show the presence of calcite, gypsum, quartz, and muscovite minerals with organic fibers. Chemical analyses of the specimens showed that high SiO2+Al2O3+Fe2O3 contents yielded high values of hydraulicity and cementation indices. A significant result of this study was that mortars with high hydraulicity and cementation indices have high mechanical strengths.This characteristic may be the main reason for the earthquake resistance of the historical Alhambra Palace.

Cite this article

Hanifi Binici , Selim Kapur . The physical,chemical,and microscopic properties of masonry mortars from Alhambra Palace (Spain) in reference to their earthquake resistance[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2016 , 5(1) : 101 -110 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2015.10.003

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