Analytical Investigations of Traditional Masonry Mortars from Ancient City Walls Built during Ming and Qing Dynasties in China

With the development of China’s economy, the protection and conservation of ancient buildings were put on the agenda. However, the current understandings on Chinese traditional mortars are limited and rarely reported in the literature. In this article, the authors investigate seven ancient city wall sites built during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1841 AD) in situ, and subsequently the laboratory analysis were carried out on the collected mortar samples. The characterizations of mortar samples were performed using digital microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), simultaneous thermal analysis (TG-DSC), as well as wet chemical analysis. The analytical results show that pure lime mortar was widely used in construction during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it was also a common practice adding sticky rice soup into slaked lime to form sticky-rice lime mortar during preparations. This organic-inorganic composite material could effectively improve mechanical strength of the lime mortar. Moreover, it was first found that the sticky-rice lime mortar sample from Kaifeng ancient city wall contained very fine quartz aggregates, with an approximate binder/aggregate ratio of 1:1. The appearance of this type of mortar probably indicates a great development of Chinese traditional mortars during the mid-19th century.