Estimation of Portland cement mortar compressive strength using microcores. Influence of shape and size

This work analyses the possibility of estimating the compressive strength of hardened cement mortars extracted from buildings compared to normalized specimens using conversion coefficients. Once we obtained microcores of different shapes and size manufactured from mortars of known dosage, the mechanical assays were performed for normalized specimens and microcores. A statistical treatment of the data was carried out using one-way ANOVA with the Tukey's test for multiple comparisons. The results establish a clear difference between the strength for normalized specimens and microcores, indicating that values determined through microcores overestimate the compressive strength, so the conversion coefficients range from 0.53 to 0.86. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.