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In situ and nondestructive characterization of mechanical properties of heritage stone masonry

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Abstract

The necessity of conserving and preserving the heritage is nowadays a developing study line for several researchers. From a civil engineering perspective, one of the most important issues for the conservation of historical buildings is to ensure the structural stability. For this purpose, it is necessary to determine the mechanical properties of the ancient construction materials. However, these structures cannot be evaluated by destructive tests due to politics and restrictions for preserving the heritage built. As a consequence, new methods that do not put in risk the integrity of the materials and the structure are becoming useful tools for researchers who work on structural engineering of heritage buildings. This paper presents a nondestructive method (NDM) that has been used to characterize the mechanical properties of different constructive systems of the San Antonio de Padua Temple, which is a religious icon in Aguascalientes, Mexico. This method includes the measuring of seismic waves’ travel time in order to obtain shear and compressional velocity waves. Results show that with this method mechanical properties of masonry can be obtained such as Young’s modulus, Poisson ratio and bulk density, which are needed for the structural analysis using numerical simulation models.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the support of Armando Mendez during the experimental measurements taken in the temple. Also, we thank the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes (UAA) and Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) for their support during the course of this investigation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciencias del Diseño y de la Construcción, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Av. Universidad 940, Ciudad Universitaria, 20131, Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico

    Orenday-Tapia Edith Estefanía, Pacheco-Martínez Jesús & Padilla-Ceniceros Raudel

  2. CeGeA SC – Consultores en Geociencias Aplicadas SC, Xochicalco 412, Lomas de Jesús María, 20925, Jesús María, Ags, Mexico

    Padilla-Ceniceros Raudel

  3. Instituto de Geología de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí, Av. Dr. Manuel Nava #5, Zona Universitaria, 78240, San Luis Potosí, S.L.P., Mexico

    López-Doncel Rubén Alfonso

Authors
  1. Orenday-Tapia Edith Estefanía
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  2. Pacheco-Martínez Jesús
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  3. Padilla-Ceniceros Raudel
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  4. López-Doncel Rubén Alfonso
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pacheco-Martínez Jesús.

Additional information

This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Stone in the Architectural Heritage: from quarry to monuments – environment, exploitation, properties and durability”, guest edited by Siegfried Siegesmund, Luís Sousa, and Rubén Alfonso López-Doncel.

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Orenday-Tapia, E.E., Pacheco-Martínez, J., Padilla-Ceniceros, R. et al. In situ and nondestructive characterization of mechanical properties of heritage stone masonry. Environ Earth Sci 77, 286 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7473-8

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