Adaptation of the standard EN 196-1 for mortar with accelerator

In certain applications, accelerators are added to favour a rapid evolution of mechanical properties in mortar and concrete. In order to assure adequate performance, it is necessary to test the compatibility between the accelerator and other components of the mixture. The EN 934-5 establishes that such evaluation of accelerators should be performed according with the procedure established in the EN 196-1. However, this standard does not take into account the inclusion of the accelerators or the particularities of the mortar produced with these admixtures. The objective of this paper is to adapt the EN 196-1 in order to characterize the strength of mortars with accelerator. First, an experimental parametric study to evaluate the influence of the production procedure on the results was conducted. Based on the results obtained, a modified production process was proposed. Then, a wide experimental program including a total of 40 mixes of mortars with different formulations and contents of accelerators was performed. Based on a statistical analysis, a new admissible variation used to calculate the compressive strength was proposed.