• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.20-29
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• 2016

This study investigates the effect of the absorbent materials on the material properties(compressive strength and drying shrinkage) of natural hwangtoh mortar which is one of the traditional building material in Korea. The absorbent materials used are seaweed paste and Super-Absorbent Polymer(SAP). In addition to the absorbent materials, the initial sealed curing recommended by the standard specification of properties for Korean traditional building materials is also a main interest of this study. Based on the test results of 28 days compressive strength and converged drying shrinkage, it is confirmed that the initial sealed curing for 7 days is effective to reduce the drying shrinkage and to enhance the compressive strength. Thus, it is verified that the recommendation is reasonable and has positive effects on the properties of the mortar. Next, the test results show that the addition of absorbent materials into the mortar is also effective to the two properties depending on their absorption capacity. Thus, it is more effective to use SAP than the seaweed paste because of higher absorption capacity. However, both the initial sealed curing and keeping total water contents of the mortar are required to show this effectiveness. Lastly, the compressive strength is inversely proportional to the drying shrinkage. By using this relation, the reason of the increase of compressive strength due to the initial sealed curing or the addition of absorbent materials is quantitatively explained.