Shear bond strength device for mortar coatings: development and validation

Abstract The high incidence of building pathologies resulting from the lack of adherence of mortar coatings evidences the importance of conducting studies focusing on this problem. The main properties that influence adherence are tensile bond strength, shear bond strength and adherence extension or real interfacial contact area. However, most studies in this area focus only on tensile bond strength. In order to understand the properties that influence bond strength, it is essential to carry out interfacial mortar/substrate studies. Hence, this paper presentes an investigation of shear bond strength, the main property influencing the coating bond on mortars. A device to test shear bond strength was developed and tested. This tool can be fitted to a pull-off device that is commonly used and meets the Brazilian standards for tensile strength tests. In order to validate the proposed device, three different mortars with air-entraining admixture applied on concrete substrates were tested. The results showed that the device is effective and also easy to use and reproduce. The shear bond strength results were coherent and presented low variation coeficiente values, showing great potential for use in the comparative analysis of mortars.