LABORATORY EVALUATION OF NANOLIME CONSOLIDATION OF LIMESTONE STRUCTURES IN THE ROMAN SITE OF JERASH, JORDAN

Abstract

This study investigates the consolidation effect of nanosized particles of calcium hydroxide dispersed in al

coholic medium on limestone. The treatment materials were applied on limestone samples from Jersah ar

chaeological site as well as other fresh samples. Different parameters were taken into consideration to evalu

ate the efficacy of the consolidation material and include: porosity, water uptake, compressive strength, drill

ing resistance and salt crystallization damage resistance.

Comparison between these properties before and after consolidation showed that the application of nano

particles prepared in propanol-1, significantly improved the mechanical properties of the treated stone.

Compressive strength increased by about 37% for archaeological stone and by about 25% for fresh ones, the

drilling resistance increased by about 75% for archaeological stone and by about 52% for the fresh ones.

Nano-sized lime has no significant effect on porosity; decreased by 4.6% and 3.2% for archaeological and

fresh stones respectively, while water uptake value (w-value) decreased by 8.4% for archaeological stones

and by 17.2% for fresh stones.

Nanolime consolidant improved salt crystallization damage resistance by about 29% for fresh stone and by

about 32 % for archaeological samples. The main disadvantage of the nanolime consolidants is the relatively

low penetration depth; the average consolidant uptake value ranged between 6.14 kg/m2hr0.5 for archaeolog

ical stones and 1.52 kg/m2hr0.5 for fresh stone.