MICROSTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES OF POROUS BUILDING-MATERIALS

To successfully predict the performance of building materials exposed to a degradative environment, transport properties must be either meas ured or estimated. The development of relationships between microstruc ture and transport properties for these materials should allow accurat e prediction of the latter and an increased understanding of how micro structure influences transport. Here, two microstructural characteriza tion techniques, mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron m icroscopy, are combined with computer modelling techniques to compute the vapor diffusivity and air permeability of three building materials commonly exposed in building facades, two types of brick and a natura l sandstone. In general, the computed values compare favorably to thos e measured experimentally, thus demonstrating the capability of employ ing microstructural characterization to predict transport properties.