Description:
<jats:p>Many studies have been developed about the use of wastes as construction materials. The higher volume of waste generated by many types of industries has caused many environmental problems. Most of these wastes have not been placed in adequate sites, or even been reused. In Brazil the industries that produces kaolin generates a lot of wastes. Studies have been carried out on the use of kaolin wastes as replacement material for Portland cement concretes and mortars; and only few ones have studied it in hydraulic mortars for restoration of historical buildings. In this work kaolin wastes were studied as pozzolanic and inert material in lime mortars. Two lime/metakaolin ratios and different proportions of kaolin wastes as replacement of river sand were studied. Hardened properties of these mortars like compressive and tensile strength and water absorbed by capillarity were evaluated up to 180 days of curing. Microstructural characteristics also were assessed using thermal analysis (TG/DTG) and x-rays diffraction (XRD). Some mortars presented the highest strengths at 90 days of curing, and at 180 days their resistances dropped. The major phases found by microstructural analysis were monocarboaluminate (C4ACH11) and calcium carbonate (CaCO<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>).</jats:p>