Porosity and pore size distribution of the dimension stone in the historic city of cuenca

Abstract

The historic city of Cuenca is a first-rate architectural complex in terms of its architectural and cultural landscape. The conservation of the existing stone requires comprehensive studies that take into account the petrological and petro-physical source materials (historical quarries) and condition (study of pathologies) of the material used. Porosity and pore-size distribution are important properties as they partially determine weathering. This paper studies the pore system of the historic building stones of Cuenca. These stones have a total porosity of 10-20% with pore-size intervals of 0.1-10 μm. These characteristics make them sensitive to processes such as salt and ice crystallization pressures. New introduced stones (e.g., Vara del Rey stone) with a different porosity and pore-size intervals may cause incompatibility problems in the short and middle term. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.