Determination of the hygric properties of the heritage stone of the Cathedral of Cuenca through the water absorption by capillarity test

Abstract

This work analyses the characterization of the hygric behaviour of a stone heritage material by solving the inverse problem using experimental data obtained from a water absorption by capillarity test (EN 15801). This common test is undemanding and requires relatively simple equipment as compared to other hygric characterization tests. For the solution of the direct problem of transient flow in partially saturated porous media, a computational module was developed in COMSOL Multiphysics that includes the conceptual model from the standard EN 15026. The selected material was the heritage stone of the Cuenca Cathedral, differentiating between two characteristic lithotypes: one with greater porosity and another that is more resistant, with more reduced porosity. Based on the experimental results, the intrinsic permeability and the parameters of the moisture storage function are estimated for the two lithotypes. Similarly, contrast tests were conducted to quantify the estimation error. A stochastic analysis was performed to assess if the estimated hygric parameters satisfactorily characterize the behaviour of the studied stone. © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS