Determination of mechanical properties of natural stone and brick elements in masonry heritage buildings

Abstract

The paper presents the results of investigation and documentary research conducted by the authors upon the constituent material of stone and brick masonry structures located in Dobrudja county. It's important to mention that in Dobrudja are encountered a great number of heritage buildings belonging to 18th - 19th century that have a stone and brick masonry structure resistance. For these reasons the main objective of the study is to determine the mechanical properties of materials which structure is made of. In order to achieve this objective the authors have determined the mechanical characteristics of brick and stone elements in masonry with nondestructive methods for various heritage buildings in Dobrudja area. To verify and validate the results obtained by nondestructive methods, those results were compared with the ones obtained by applying destructive methods in the laboratory of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, "Ovidius" University of Constanta. The results have been summarized and constitute the beginning of a database of mechanical characteristics. The obtained results offer a valuable amount of information in establishing measures for interventions in restoration. © RILEM 2013.