COMPARISON OF MERCURY POROSIMETRY AND X-RAY MICROTOMOGRAPHY FOR POROSITY STUDY OF SANDSTONES

摘要

Sandstones have been widely used as a building material since the medieval time all around the Europe. Porosity is one of the main factors affecting the resistance to weathering processes and consequently to the changes of mechanical and physical .properties of these stones. Rock material is generally negatively influenced especially during the winter period when frost action takes place. Effect of salt crystals and ice formation depends on the character of pore space, including the pore size distribution. Mercury porosimetry is well known method which provides information about porosity and pore size distribution of samples, but as any other method, it has its own limitations. X-ray microtomography can be used as a complementary method enabling another "view" into the pore space. Main aim of this paper has been to provide the information about the use of these two mentioned methods and comparison of obtained results, within the study of sandstone weathering. The research was focused on two commonly used Czech Cretaceous sandstones - Ho?ice and Bo?anov. The stones were exposed to the accelerated durability test which is based on the meteorological data measured in Prague winters from 1998 to 2008. There were described the changes in the area of pores diameters > 5 μm. Use of mercury porosimetry together with X-ray microtomgraphy enabled more detailed understanding of the processes inside the stone structure.