Development of new techniques to understand marble quality and ...( The international commerce of ornam...)

The international commerce of ornamental stones has grown all over the world in the last years, revealing a decided solid support to the aesthetics of natural stones in buildings construction and urban ornamentation.

Marble is, undoubtedly, the ornamental stone par excellence. All through history, numerous civilizations have architectural or sculptural works which constitute the most important pieces of their historic heritage. Despite this, nowadays we have a very limited understanding about the intrinsic features which affect marble durability/changeability.

This fact is paradoxical in countries such as Spain, with a rich historic heritage in marble and one of the most important producing and exporting countries at a worldwide scale of this type of ornamental stone.

Researchers of the University of Granada, led by Prof Eduardo Sebastin Pardo, and of the University of Gotinguen (Germany), led by Prof Siegfried Siegesmund, collaborate in a project to explain the causes for marble physical decay and design new identification and conservation methods.

The study, says Prof Sebastin, permits to "dictate recommendations referred to the specific use of ornamental marble, when they are used in buildings external coatings and other constructive functions". Selection criteria are based on stone intrinsic features. Therefore, the analysis deals with an exhaustive characterization of materials, their petrography and their physical properties.

Studied marbles

The goal is to set an analytical proceeding to determine which types of marble are the most appropriate for construction purposes, as well as the best environment and conditions for their maintenance. The objective is to prevent the phenomenon of marble decay observed in many European buildings, often developed in very short spaces of time (even less than three years after their construction).

The studies have been carried out on different comme
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