Elsevier

Journal of Cultural Heritage

Volume 2, Issue 4, October–December 2001, Pages 283-289
Journal of Cultural Heritage

Effects of condensed water on limestone surfaces in a marine environment

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1296-2074(01)01132-3Get rights and content

Abstract

We have evaluated the effects of condensed water on limestone surfaces through a procedure that foresaw the cooling of the samples before their exposition to the open air, so that the condensation phenomena could occur easily. The effects of the condensed water were evaluated by measuring the weight change of the samples, through SEM observations and analysis of the 3-D profile, using laser profilometer. The results show the weak action of condensed water on the stone surface, particularly if compared with that of rain.

Section snippets

Research aims

Some alteration to the limestone surface could be attributed to the action of condensed water, and in particular the interaction between CO2 and CaCO3 〚1〛.

Once condensation is formed, it acts as a solvent for a series of gaseous substances present in the atmosphere (CO2, SO2, NOX, etc.) and/or it transports substances present in aerosol form. The solutions that are thus formed possess a high concentration of ‘reactiveˈ species for stony surfaces 〚2〛.

This research presents a study of the effect

Condensation: evaporation cycles on stone

The examined stone supports are: Istria stone (total porosity 2.6%), Carrara marble (total porosity < 1%) and Vicenza stone (total porosity 28.5%), characterised by a dominant carbonate component (95–99%), but of different morphology and porosity. Istria stone is a microcrystalline limestone, with clays, minerals and iron oxide impurities. Carrara marble is a metamorphic microcrystalline limestone and Vicenza stone is an organogenous limestone.

The stones were cut into parallelepipedal samples

Cycles of condensation–evaporation

Figure 16 shows the trends concerning the cycles of condensation (rising part of the curve) and evaporation (descending part of the curve) determined for the three types of stone support, at 20 °C and 65% of relative humidity.

The Carrara marble and Istria stone gather the same quantity of condensation, which corresponds to about 7.5 g/m2, in the indicated environmental condition. The Vicenza stone absorbs a quantity slightly lower, equivalent to about 6 g/m2. The phase of maximum condense

Conclusions

The research, conducted with this methodology and in these environmental conditions, has stressed a quite limited action of the condensation on carbonate stone surfaces, above all in comparison to that bound to the direct action of the rain.

We have, however, surveyed the acid characteristic of the condensation, with values included from 5.54 and 6.93. The condensation action on carbonate stone surfaces involves very limited weight variations and a process of sorption and evaporation bound to

Acknowledgements

The research has been conducted thanks to the financial support from CNR-PF Cultural Heritage.

References (6)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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