Analysis of the Degradation Process of Sand-Lime Plasters Under the Impact of Crystallization Pressure

Abstract A masonry basement wall was heavily dampened due to the lack of waterproofing in the ground contact area. Internal sand-lime wall plaster samples were subjected to chemical, physical and strength tests. The main phases of the damaged plaster were quartz and calcite. A measuring method of the tensile strength of plasters was proposed. A polar-symmetric deformation problem of a thick-walled spherical tank, allowing for the estimation of circumferential stresses in the spherical model was used for the analysis. It was found that the same values of porosity correspond to identical values of circumferential stresses, regardless of the values of the radii of the analyzed model. Thus the purpose of the presented research was to demonstrate that the mentioned dependence applied in the adopted model may be useful for the analysis of problems involving the resistance of internal plaster structure to the expansion caused by crystallization pressure.