Supported projects

Building heritage remains are often directly exposed to their environment and in particular to water: water can be an agent/cause of damage, by phase change in cyclic freezing conditions /thaw, or dissolution and erosion; water as a vector of alteration or damage, conveying dissolved salts responsible for the phenomenon of alteration during cycles of saturation/desaturation. The nature and properties of the interfaces between these alteration agents or vectors and the building materials may play a major role in the hability of a construction to face environmental variations and climate change. The damaging phenomena can also take place within the materials at the interface of various constituants. The study will focus on antic period man-made materials used in “petit appareil” masonry found in the French Vexin : lime mortars with brick fragments, which demonstrated through ages high durability in various environments. ARCHAEOMAT conducts antic mortar caracterization at two complementary scales: at the microscopic scale, through the physicochemical characterization of the phases and their interfaces; and at the macroscopic scale, by measuring transport properties using porosimetry, gas permeability, and capillary imbibition tests. The multi-parameter results or maps will enrich the databases of the scientific community interested in building heritage materials and alteration study.