Propiedades hídricas y anisotropía en rocas sedimentarias porosas

Resum

Water is one of the more important weathering agents. Stone hydric properties play a fundamental role when durability is evaluated. Moreover, sedimentary rocks may show anisotropies which would condition the water behavior within their porous system. That has to be taken into account when chosen as building stone. In this study, different vectorial water parameters will be determined. They are related to the anisotropy in water absorption and the water vapor permeability. Six different sedimentary rocks are studied (high porosity limestone and sandstone; low porosity dolomite and travertine). These parameters are correlated between them, as well as with the porosity characteristics. In conclusion, sedimentary porous stones exhibit low anisotropy, water vapor permeability shows good relation with the capillary absorption and, especially, with the drops water absorption. In result, in this type of rocks, the simple test of drops water absorption allows to estimate the water vapor permeability.