Salt influence on evaporation from porous building rocks

Abstract

The evaporation process of saline solutions within porous building rocks has been studied. Twelve different porous rocks saturated in pure water and a NaCl solution, were dried in a moisture balance. The influence of pore structure, environmental relative humidity and saline solution on the evaporation process has been studied from the experimental results. In order to explain the influence of these parameters simultaneously on the evaporation process, a detailed study of the thermodynamic equations is realised. This study explains the evaporation process in 0.01–100 μm pore size interval, predicting that saline solutions remain a long time within porous media, and therefore, intensify weathering processes.