Fracture and Failure of Natural Building Stones Applications in the Restoration of Ancient Monuments

The fracture and failure of natural building stones has been for many years the concern of the engineering community and particularly the c- munity of scientists working for the restoration and conservation of stone monuments. The need to protect the authentic stone and the requirement for reversibility of the interventions rendered the in-depth knowledge of the mechanical behaviour of both the authentic material and its substitutes - dispensable. This book contains 36 papers presented at the Symposium on “Fracture and Failure of Natural Building Stones” which was organized in the frame of the “16th European Conference on Fracture (ECF16)”. The Conference took place in Alexandroupolis, Hellas on July 3-7, 2006. To my best kn- ledge this is the first time that a special Symposium of a European C- ference on Fracture is devoted exclusively to the study of the fracture and failure of building stones. The book consists of invited papers written by leading experts in the field. It contains original contributions concerning the latest developments in the fracture and failure of the natural building stones and their application in the restoration of ancient monuments. It covers a wide range of subjects - cluding purely mechanical aspects, physico-chemical approaches, appli- tions and case studies. The papers are arranged in two parts with a total of nine chapters. Part I is devoted to purely mechanical and structural aspects and applications, while Part II is devoted to the physico-chemical and environmental aspects including thermal effects.

Contributing Authors; Editor's Preface; Foreword ; Part I: Mechanical and Structural Aspects; Chapter 1: Fracture ; 1.1 Subcritical Cracking: A Cause of Rock Panel Failure in Buildings , by Chau K.T., Wong R.H.C., Wong T.-f.; 1.2 Studies on Sub-Critical Crack Growth in Façade Rock Panel Using Four-Point Bending, by Kwok K.W., Wong R.H.C., Chau K.T., Wong T.f.; 1.3 Notched Marble Specimens Under Direct Tension: The Influence of the shape of the notch , by Agioutantis Z., Kourkoulis S.K., Kontos G.; Chapter 2: Mechanical behaviour and properties; 2.1 Modelling Weathering Effects on the Mechanical Behaviour of Natural Building Stones , by Nova R.; 2.2 Mechanical Properties and Damage Diagnosis of Natural Building Stones , by Papamichos E., Papanicolopulos S.-A., Larsen I.; 2.3 The Mechanical Behaviour of Composite Specimens Made of Two Different Stones, by Ninis N.L., Kourkoulis S.K.; 2.4 Mechanical Characteristics of Roman 'Opus Caementicium' , by Giavarini C., Samuelli Ferretti A., Santarelli M.L.; Chapter 3: Masonry; 3.1 Continuum Modelling of Masonry Structures Under Static and Dynamic Loading , by Stefanou I., Sulem J., Vardoulakis I.; 3.2 Mechanical Behaviour of Masonry Structures Strengthened with Different Improvement Techniques, by Valluzzi M.R., Modena C.; 3.3 Stress Failure Analysis of Masonry Structures Under Earthquake Loading, by Syrmakezis C.A., Asteris P.G., Antonopoulos A.K., Mavrouli O.A.; 3.4 Compatibility of Materials Used for Repair of Masonry Buildings: Research and Applications , by Binda L., Saisi A., Tedeschi C.; Chapter 4: Conservation approaches - Applications - Case Studies; 4.1 The Difficult Choice of Materials for the Reconstruction of the Cathedral of Noto , by Binda L., Cardani G., Tiraboschi C.; 4.2 Technological and conservation aspects versus urban appearance in a stone-built environment: An evaluation approach , by Lobovikov-Katz A.; 4.3 Structural Stability of Historic Underground Openings in Rock , by Hatzor H. Y.,Tsesarsky M., Eimermacher R.C.; 4.4 Seismic Response of Classical Monuments With Fractured Structural Elements, by Psycharis I.N.; 4.5 Spanning Intervals: Towards Understanding the Ancient Greek Optimization Procedure for the Design of Horizontal Beams, by Papantonopoulos C.; 4.6 Joining Fragmented Marble Architraves Using Titanium Bars: A Numerical Analysis, by Kourkoulis S.K., Ganniari-Papageorgiou E., Mentzini M.; Part II: Physico-chemical and environmental aspects; Chapter 5: Weathering ; 5.1 Susceptibility of Building Stones to Environmental Loads: Evaluation, Performance, Repair Strategies , by Moropoulou A., Labropoulos K., Konstanti A., Roumpopoulos K., Bakolas A.Michailidis P.; 5.2 Controlling Stress from Salt Crystallization , by Houck J., Scherer G. W.; 5.3 Weathering of Building Stone: Approaches to Assessment, Prediction and Modelling, by Warke P.A., McKinley J., Smith B.J.; 5.4 Natural and Accelerated Weathering of Two Coloured Sicilian Building Stones, by Rizzo G., Ercoli L., Megna B.; Chapter 6: Freeze-thaw; 6.1 On-Site and Laboratory Studies of Strength Loss in Marble on Building Exteriors, by Logan J. M.; 6.2 The Integrity Loss of Physico-Mechanical Properties of Building Stones when Subjected to Recurrent Cycles of Freeze–Thaw (F-T) Process, by Altindag R., Sengün N., Güney A., Mutlutürk M., Karagüzel R., Onargan T.; 6.3 Monitoring of Thermal Conditions in Building Stone with Particular Reference to Freeze-Thaw Events , by Hall K.; Chapter 7: Thermal stresses; 7.1 The Effect of Thermal Stresses on the Mechanical Behaviour of Natural Building Stones, by Bellopede R., Ferrero A.M., Manfredotti L., Marini P., Migliazza M.; 7.2 Digital Image Analysis Contribution to the Evaluation of the Mechanical Decay of Granitic Stones Affected by Fires, by Gomez-Heras M., Figueiredo C., Varas M.J., Maurício A., Álvarez de Buergo M., Aires-Barros L., Fort R.; 7.3 The Behaviour of Natural Building Stones by Heat Effect ,