APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF SALT WEATHERING OF GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS

Salt weathering affects diverse geological materials in historical and contemporary structures. Its characterization is important to evaluate the hazard level to the materials and the measures to remediate or at least to mitigate their effects.
The present communication reviews different approaches to the study of salt weathering along two main lines:
- simulation experiences (including exposure experience and laboratory tests) which are based on ad hoc conditions specifically designed for the goal of assessing the impact of salt weathering;
- case studies of real structures based, mostly, in fieldwork, which might be complemented by laboratory analyses of the products of salt weathering and the potential sources of salt contaminants.
Our goal is to discuss the usefulness and limitations of these approaches to the research of the main issues related to this subject such as the migration and concentration of salt pollutants and their relation with the development of decay features affecting building stones applied in fieldwork the built environment.