Egg White and Eggshell Mortar Reinforcing a Masonry Stone Bridge: Experiments on Mortar and 3D Full-Scale Bridge Discrete Simulations

Abstract

In this study, experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to examine the time-dependent creep and earthquake performance of the historical Plaka stone bridge, which was constructed in 1866 in Arta, Greece. During the original construction of the bridge in 1866, Khorasan mortar with an egg white additive was used between the stone elements. Furthermore, when the bridge underwent restoration in 2015, Khorasan mortar with an eggshell additive was employed between the stone elements. Consequently, two distinct 3D finite-difference models were developed for this study. In the first bridge model, egg white was used in the Khorasan mortar, replacing water at various proportions of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. In contrast, for the second model, eggshell was incorporated into the Khorasan mixture at percentages of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, relative to the lime amount. Subsequently, the mortars were subjected to curing periods of 1 day, 7 days, and 28 days, and their mechanical properties were determined through unconfined compression strength experiments. Taking into account the determined strengths of the mortars, the kn and ks stiffness values of the interface elements between the stone elements and Khorasan mortar were calculated. In the 3D model, each stone element was individually represented, resulting in a total of 1,849,274 stone elements being utilized. Non-reflecting boundary conditions were applied to the edge boundaries of the bridge model, and the Burger creep and Mohr–Coulomb material models was employed for time-dependent creep and seismic analyses, respectively. Subsequently, time-dependent creep analyses were conducted on the bridge, and seismic events that occurred in the region where the bridge was located were simulated to assess their impact. Based on the results of the time-dependent creep and seismic analyses, we observed that the use of 50% eggshell-mixed Khorasan mortar between the stone elements had a positive influence on the earthquake and creep behaviors of both restored and yet-to-be-restored historical bridges.