Hygric and thermal properties of materials used in historical masonry

SUMMARY: In the reconstruction works on historical buildings, considerable financial means are spent. Therefore, it is desirable to assess the durability of applied materials in the particular conditions of a specific building. This cannot be done effectively without the knowledge of their hygric and thermal properties which can be used as input parameters of computational models. In this paper, hygric and thermal properties of several types of materials which are used in reconstructions of historical buildings on Czech territory, among them ceramic brick, sandstone, lime plaster, lime-metakaolin plaster, and hydrophobized lime-metakaolin plaster are investigated in the paper. Orientation values of moisture diffusivity are determined by methods utilizing the results of water sorptivity measurements, water vapor diffusion permeability is measured by the cup method. Sorption isotherms are determined by the desiccator method in the range of relative humidity of 11% - 96%. Thermal conductivity is measured in the moisture range from the dry state to full water saturation.