Kandahar University

Engineering Faculty
Architectural Engineering Department

Conservation of Historic Building

Lecture 04: Climatic Causes of Decay

Text-Book : Conservation of Historic Building, Third Edition

Prepared By : Hameed Ahmad

1402/07/14

1
2
General Outlines:
 Introduction
 Solar Radiation
 Temperature and thermal expansion
 Thermal Movement
o Thermal movement of a block of stone set in a wall
o Thermal movement of a wall
o Thermal movement of a whole building
 The action of moisture

3
Climatic Causes of Decay 4
Gravity and Structural Issues, External Causes of Decay 5
Climatic Causes , Untreated Wood effected By Sun 6
Kangra Fort, Climatic Causes , Cracks due to Seasonal Warming and Cooling 7
Climatic Causes , Differential Brick Expansion 8
Climatic Causes, Rain Penetration 9
External Causes, Ground Water, Salt Crystallization 10
External Causes, Salt Crystallization 11
World Temperature Ranges

12
Introduction:
 Climate, in all its aspects, is one of the fundamental causes of the decay
of buildings, through failure of their materials which in turn affects the
structure.
 To give a simple example, mud brick or adobe may last:
o Thousands of years in extremely dry, arid desert conditions such as
found in North Peru or Nubia
o Less than a decade in the hot, humid climate of southern Nigeria
 The resistance of building materials to climatic agents of decay decreases
with their exposure and age.
 Even in temperate zones, solar radiation is found to be more destructive
than frost.

13
Introduction:
 Water, in all its forms, is the agent that promotes chemical actions and
gradual deterioration of building materials and actively damages buildings
when heavy rainfall overflows gutters and rivers rise in flood.
 The active components of macroclimate that affect a building particularly
are:
o Radiation from the sun
o Seasonal temperature changes
o Rainfall, particularly storms which may cause flooding on both a
micro or macro scale
o Wind
o The transportation of ground moisture

14
Introduction:
 The siting of a building and the soil it stands on affect its microclimate
which can modify the macroclimate considerably and so increase climatic
hazards.
 Other examples of microclimatic effects are:
o Frost ponds
o Shading by hills or mountains
o The ameliorating effects of water on temperature extremes
o as well as that of the moisture content of the soil
 The architectural form and structure of a building will influence the
microclimate of its parts.

15
Solar Radiation

16
Solar Radiation:
 Solar radiation is the prime cause of climatic conditions, and its
wavelengths range from the ultraviolet (0.2 µm), through the narrow band
of visible spectrum of light (0.4–0.9 µm) to up to infrared (8 µm), which has
the greatest energy input.
 The absorptivity of material varies from naught for a perfect reflector to
one for a perfect absorber.
 The term ‘albedo’ is used by climatologists to define the percentage of
incoming solar radiation that is reflected from a surface.
 Ozone, water vapors, clouds and dust restrict the amount of solar
radiation which is receivable by between 30% and 60%.

17
Solar Radiation:
 Short wavelengths pass through glass which, however, does not transmit
the returning long-wave radiation, a feature which is called solar gain.
 Light, especially the ultraviolet component, is a destructive agent,
particularly to organic materials such as wood, textiles and pigments, and
causes:
o Fading
o Embrittlement
o Loss of substance
 Unprotected wood can erode at the rate of 5–6 mm (1 – 4 in) per century
due to the combined attack of ultraviolet light and rapid moisture
exchange.

18
Fading, Wooden Structure 19
Temperature and Thermal Expansion

20
Temperature:
 The cause of air temperature change is almost entirely the heating effect
of the sun by day through both short- and long-wave radiation and the loss
of this heat by long-wave radiation and convection at night.
 Building materials are heated by solar radiation in three ways:
o By direct solar gain from external radiation
o By indirect internal solar gain through window, the ‘greenhouse
effect’
o By indirect heating via the external air whose ambient temperature
is raised by the sun.
 The shaded part of a building stays relatively cool and immobile, being
mainly affected by the seasonal average temperatures.

21
Temperature:
 The ranges of change in climatic temperatures vary considerably:
o Being narrow in a humid tropical rainy equatorial climate
o Moderate in a maritime cool summer climate
o Wide in continental steppe and polar tundra conditions
o Extreme in arid desert climates, where daily and seasonal variations are
at their greatest.
 A building of low thermal mass is most sensitive to daily variations.
 In hot desert climates the traditional permanent buildings are all of heavy
construction, having a high thermal mass to compensate for the daily
temperature changes.

22
Temperature:
 The stresses induced in building materials by temperature changes are
dependent on the following five factors:
o The magnitude of absolute dimensional change in the material
o The elasticity of the material
o The capacity of the material to creep or flow under load
o The degree of restraint to the movement of the material by its
connection to other elements of the structure.
o The change in moisture content by evaporation.
 The amount of solar heat gain in a structure is determined by the angle of
incidence of the radiation to the receiving surface and by the thermal
properties of the receiving surface.

23
Thermal Movement

24
Thermal Movement:
 All building materials expand when heated and contract again when
cooled, this expansion and contraction being called thermal movement
which is a major cause of decay in buildings.
 The extent of thermal movement depends upon:
o The temperature range resulting from the heat input and modified by
the thermal capacity of the structure.
o The thickness
o Conductivity
o Coefficient of expansion of the material
 The color and reflectivity of the material alters the radiant heat input,
which is the main factor inducing temperature increase.

25
Thermal Movement:
 Depending upon the nature and elasticity and plasticity of the mortar
,thermal movements in masonry are not generally acute unless the building
is longer than 30–50 m (100–160 ft).
 The usual sign of thermal movement in a building as a whole is cracking
of the upper portions or the loosening of the stones in their joints.
 As expansion of masonry is not necessarily followed by equal contraction,
small annual thermal movements can build up to a considerable extension
over a period of years. (Creep or Drift)
 For example, the north and south arcaded walls of the choir of York
Minster.

26
27
Thermal Movement:
 Let us consider thermal movements under three sections:
o The movement of a block of stone set in a wall
o The movement of the wall itself
o The movement of a building as a whole
 Depending upon the season, there will be an inward or outward flow of
heat through the stone.
 In England, however, even assuming the most extreme conditions, the
stresses within the stone due to temperature differential are unlikely to
cause cracking of sound building stone.

28
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/11/3063/htm 29
Thermal Movement:
 The outer and inner faces are generally of ashlar blocks, but the core is
often of rubble material all being set in a lime mortar which is weak in
relation to the strength of the stone.
 A masonry wall can absorb stresses to a remarkable degree:
o First by compressing the mortar
o Secondly by absorbing internal strains
o Thirdly by friction between the blocks of stone
o Finally by the plastic nature of lime mortar
 Thermal cracks in a building are not likely to show in its horizontal joints,
although there may be some crushing in the mortar joints.

30
31
32
The action of Moisture

33
The action of Moisture:
 The presence of water in any of its various forms causes or accelerates the
decay of most building materials.
 Water reaches a masonry surface when the rain hits the surface directly; it
may also reach the surface indirectly, falling somewhere else on the
building and gaining access through a more complicated path.
 Water also penetrates porous masonry materials through capillary action;
suction is exerted by capillaries.
 The height of the capillary rise of water in porous masonry materials
depends mainly on:
o The pore size
o The rate of evaporation from the external surface

34
The action of Moisture:
 Old thick masonry sometimes shows capillary rises as high as 8–10 m, 4–
5 m being common.
 Water can gain access to masonry materials directly through the air, either
by condensation or by the deposition of aerosols, such as mist, fog or salt
spray.
 Condensation occurs on the coldest surface available; therefore, ‘cold’
materials, i.e. materials with high density and high thermal conductivity,
are most affected by it.
 Condensation water is far more dangerous than rain water because it
sweeps a large volume of air in front of the cold surface (the Stefan effect),
cleaning it completely of all suspended dirt or gaseous pollutants.

35
36
37
Precipitation of moisture

38
Precipitation of moisture:
 Atmospheric moisture may occur in:
o Vapour or gas form, known as humidity
o Water in minute droplet form or as ice crystals, known as fog or
clouds
o As liquid precipitation known as drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, soft hail
(graupel), snow grains, hail, rime, glaze and dew.
 Humidity is measured by:
o Hair hygrometers
o Psychrometers
o Lithium chloride meters
 Moisture precipitation is measured by means of a rain gauge.

39
40
Dissolved Salts:
 The composition of salts and their action by evaporation are as follows:
o The salts that are potentially the most dangerous to the rendering and to
the painted surface of a wall are:
1. Sulphates of sodium
2. Potassium
3. Magnesium
4. Calcium
o The nitrates of sodium, potassium and calcium are soluble salts
o Calcium carbonate
o Sodium chloride
o Silica

41
Thank You!

42