Experimental Analysis of Romanesque Masonries Made by Tile and Brick Fragments Found at the Archaeological Site of S. Maria in Portuno

Abstract

The reuse of ancient ceramic fragments in Romanesque masonries was a common practice\ud in the Medieval era. A cultural impoverishment of the masonry building art characterized\ud this period. Pre-existing structures were often exploited to build new masonries, both for\ud civil and religious purpose. Starting from these general considerations, a specific construction\ud technique of some Romanesque masonries of the Church of S. Maria in Portuno (Italy)\ud and made by tile and brick fragments, was studied by a multidisciplinary approach. Analyses\ud of the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of the original materials (tile and brick\ud fragments, mortars) were carried out by laboratory tests. Furthermore, some wall specimens\ud were reproduced through the same ceramic materials and construction technique of\ud the original masonries. Compression tests were carried out on these wall specimens so as\ud to understand the influence of this construction technique on their compressive strength,\ud Young’s modulus, and failure mode. The results allowed increased current knowledge on\ud historical materials and on the mechanical behavior of these specific historical masonries.\ud Useful data obtained by experimental characterization of the materials and walls will also\ud allow to guide future restoration works on these masonries

Novel Sustainable Masonry from Ancient Construction Techniques by Reusing Waste Modern Tiles

“…The first step was to test the materials used: a poor modern mortar and waste modern tiles. Then, six wall specimens were made and assessed by monotonic and cyclic compression tests following UNI EN 1052-1 [28] and the literature [22,[24][25][26][27].…”

“…Monotonic compression tests were performed on two walls for each type after at least one month of drying process, following UNI EN 1052-1 [28] and the literature [22,[24][25][26][27]. As shown in Figure 5, four vertical transducers were used to measure vertical displacements.…”

“…In this way, peculiar past construction techniques that reuse materials [22] could suggest new sustainable construction methods that could be used for specific situations, but they need to be mechanically tested. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no research has been conducted to propose using ancient construction techniques nowadays again by reusing modern ceramic construction waste (i.e., tiles).…”

“…The possible use of these two techniques as construction material has been verified by assessing the main mechanical properties-that is, compression strength, failure modes, and elastic modulus, as requested by several codes-through monotonic and cyclic tests usually used for testing masonry wall specimens [22,[24][25][26][27]. This is surely the first step for validating them; otherwise, no other further test would make sense if this test went wrong.…”

Fast, low cost and safe methodology for the assessment of the state of conservation of historical buildings from 3D laser scanning: The case study of Santa Maria in Portonovo (Italy)

“…In each case, the assessment of the state of conservation and risk of historical buildings usually needs different steps [5][6][7][8], starting from a geometrical and photographic survey and an in-depth analysis of architectural and constructive characteristics, up to a survey of the displacements, crack-pattern and decay framework, as well as laboratory and in situ analyses and historical documentation. This is traditionally a cost-and time-demanding process and, if carried out when, i.e.…”