Rock features and alteration of stone materials used for the built environment: a review of recent publications on ageing tests

• Published in: Geosciences (Basel) 2020-03, Vol.10 (3), p.91
• Main Authors: Alves, C., Figueiredo, Carlos, Sanjurjo-Sánchez, Jorge
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ciências da Terra e do Ambiente; Ciências Naturais; mineralogy; porous media; salt weathering; Science & Technology; structural-textural characteristics
• ISSN: 2076-3263; 2076-3263
• DOI: 10.3390/geosciences10030091

This work presents a review of recent publications, with publication date between 2017 and 2019, with information on the relation between rock characteristics and the effects of diverse agents associated with alteration of stone materials in the built environment. It considers information obtained from ageing tests performed under laboratory conditions and by exposure to outdoor agents. Several lithological groups were considered, with sedimentary carbonate rocks being the most frequently studied lithotypes and silicate metamorphic rocks being the group with scarcer information. In terms of ageing tests, salt weathering was the most frequent one while there was a noticeable lesser amount of information from tests with biological colonization. The collected data showed the influence of diverse features, from specific minerals to whole-rock properties and the presence of heterogeneities. These information are discussed in the context of formulating a general framework for stone decay. The Lab2PT-Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory-AUR/04509 is supported by the Portuguese FCT-“Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (Portuguese funds and where applicable the FEDER co-financing, in the aim of the new partnership agreement PT2020 and COMPETE2020-POCI 010145 FEDER 007528). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the CERENA (funded by a strategic project of the FCT-UID/ECI/04028/2019) and the LAMPIST of the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. The University Institute of Geology of the University of A Coruña (Spain) receives support from the Xunta de Galicia from the programme “Consolidación y estructuración de unidades de investigación competitivas: Grupos de potencial de crecimiento” (ED431B 2018/47) and Redes de investigación (R2017/008).