Publication
Title
NaCl-related weathering of stone : the importance of kinetics and salt mixtures in environmental risk assessment
Author
Abstract
Salt weathering is one of the most important causes of deterioration in the built environment. Two crucial aspects need further investigation to understand the processes and find suitable measures: the impact of different climatic environments and the properties of salt mixture crystallization. We demonstrate the importance of kinetics in quantifying crystallization and dissolution cycles by combining droplet and capillary laboratory experiments with climate data analysis. The results proved that dissolution times for pure NaCl are typically slower than crystallization, while thermodynamic modelling showed a lower RH eq of NaCl (65.5%) in a salt mixture (commonly found in the built heritage) compared to its RH eq as a single salt (75.5%). Following the results, a minimum time of 30 min is considered for dissolution and the two main RH eq thresholds could be applied to climate data analysis. The predicted number of dissolution/crystallization cycles was significantly dependent on the measurement frequency (or equivalent averaging period) of the climatic data. An analysis of corresponding rural and urban climate demonstrated the impact of spatial phenomena (such as the urban heat island) on the predicted frequency cycles. The findings are fundamental to improve appropriate timescale windows that can be applied to climate data and to illustrate a methodology to quantify salt crystallization cycles in realistic environments as a risk assessment procedure. The results are the basis for future work to improve the accuracy of salt risk assessment by including the kinetics of salt mixtures.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Heritage science
Publication
2021
ISSN
2050-7445
DOI
10.1186/S40494-021-00514-3
Volume/pages
9 :1 (2021) , p. 1-13
Article Reference
44
ISI
000640192600001
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Art 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 19.04.2021
Last edited 25.12.2024
To cite this reference