The evaluation of weathering by the effect of freezing and thawing on natural building stones within the scope of frost resistance index

Abstract

Natural stones that are used in areas open to the atmosphere and that do not have sufficient strength are adversely affected in cold regions where the freeze and thaw (FT) cycle is effective, and accordingly, their service life is shorter than expected. This situation causes economic loss and rapid depletion of limited natural stone resources. However, if natural stones with suitable strength and frost resistance are selected and used, this situation can be considerably prevented. In this study, laboratory FT cycles were performed on natural stone samples obtained from 46 different natural stone quarries in various regions of Turkey and the loss in uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) values of the samples was revealed. FT cycles were applied as 4, 7, 10, 14, 20, 28, 35, 56, 70 and 84 and UCS losses at the end of each set of FT cycles were obtained. The strength losses obtained were evaluated within the scope of the frost resistance index (FRI), and nonlinear UCS losses were revealed for all sample groups. At the end of the study, a classification system consisting of five classes as “very high”, “high”, “medium”, “low” and “very low” based on the FRI parameter was proposed. It has been revealed that stones with apparent porosity values above 5% are significantly affected by FT cycles and even if the samples maintain their integrity, up to 35% losses in UCS values at the end of 84 FT cycles were observed. © 2023 IMCET 2023 - Proceedings of the 28th International Mining Congress and Exhibition of Turkey. All rights reserved.