Project for research on historical and contemporary lime based mortars in the Walloon region (Belgium)

These studies should improve our restoration habits, which could be usefully re-oriented in order to improve practices on the restoration sites and ensure the permanence of our monuments.The main aim is to understand better the short-, medium-, and long-term behaviour of lime mortars. Some 100 formulations have been developed for laboratory testing according to various standards. A dozen 'basic recipes' that should enable us to determine the main differences in their mechanical behaviour according to their composition were subjected to the standardised tests first. Taking these formulae as our starting points, it should be possible to develop other formulae that are better suited for ancient buildings. Our analyse is using a new leading-edge technology, the scratching test, developed at Polytechnic Faculty of Mons (Faculté Polytechnique de Mons).At the same time, mortar samples from buildings and vestiges of all periods from all over the Walloon Region are being collected and studied using the scratching test in particular. The aim is to determine their mechanical properties in order to compare them with those of mortars made to the selected formulae. Finally, to improve our understanding of lime as a material, we are setting up a project involving the experimental reconstruction of two lime kilns.