Effects of natural stone heterogeneity on its susceptibility to weathering processes

Abstract

Petrologic environments generate and induce more or less complex heterogeneous patterns in the characteristics of natural stones such as textural, structural, mineralogical, chemical reactivity, petrophysical properties. The goal of the present paper is to review the effects of intrinsic heterogeneous features on the susceptibility of natural stone to weathering processes, based mostly on an extensive set of observational case studies of historical and recent building works as well as results of accelerated weathering laboratory tests. In this way, it is hoped to contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for a qualitative petrological modelling of stone behaviour in the built environment.