Thermal Effects on Mechanical Properties of Building Stones

Building stones are subject to a wide range of thermal regimes, from daily and seasonal fluctuations to extreme events such as fires. Temperature changes induce differential expansion of mineral constituents, leading to microcracking, changes in porosity and weakening of load-bearing capacity. Moisture presence exacerbates these effects by facilitating stress concentration around pore walls and promoting chemical weathering. Non-destructive methods, including ultrasonic wave velocity and thermal expansion analyses, complement traditional mechanical testing to characterise thermal damage. Mineralogical composition, grain size and fabric control the threshold and rate of degradation. Insights into these mechanisms inform the conservation of historic masonry, the design of modern stone façades and fire-resilient construction. As global temperatures rise and fire incidents increase, understanding and mitigating thermally induced deterioration of natural stone underpins both heritage preservation and sustainable engineering.

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Thermal Effects on Mechanical Properties of Building Stones publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in thermal effects on mechanical properties of building stones across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Uniaxial compressive strength: The maximum axial stress a stone specimen can withstand before failure under compression.

Thermal expansion coefficient: The fractional change in length of a material per degree of temperature change.

Porosity: The fraction of a stone’s volume that consists of void spaces, influencing strength and fluid penetration.

Young’s modulus: The ratio of stress to elastic strain, indicating the stiffness of a stone under load.

Ultrasonic wave velocity: The speed at which high-frequency elastic waves travel through stone, sensitive to internal defects and integrity.

References

1. Evaluating building stones: Physical-mechanical changes from high-temperature fire and water cooling. Heliyon (2024).
2. Thermal and physico-mechanical evaluation of some magmatic rocks at Homrit Waggat Area, Eastern Desert, Egypt: petrography and geochemistry. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment (2023).
3. Thermally induced deterioration behaviour of two dolomitic marbles under heating–cooling cycles. Royal Society Open Science (2018).