Pore structure analysis of lime plasters through inverse characterization based on sound propagation model and laboratory tests

2024-6-13
Meriç Nursal, Işın
Sound absorption of lime plasters is strongly connected to their unique pore structures. This study aims to comprehensively define the pore structures formed by different compositional features in lime plasters. The methodology includes inverse characterization based on sound absorption performance and laboratory tests to define the physical and the physico-mechanical properties, in addition to the pore structure analysis of cross sections under microscope. The inverse characterization study is performed using Johnson Champoux Allard's sound propagation model and Genetics Algorithm. The interpretation of the data achieved by laboratory tests and inverse characterization shows that the aggregate size distribution is the key compositional property that controls the sound absorption performance. Furthermore, it has a major influence on the viscous and thermal characteristic lengths, fine porosity, tortuosity, airflow resistance, pore size, and morphology of the pore structure. Among different features related to pore structure, only airflow resistivity and thermal characteristic length are significantly affected by the binder-to-aggregate ratio. The effective porosity values estimated by inverse characterization are lower than the measured total open porosity using the water immersion technique. This indicates that most of the lime plasters' open pores are dead-end type blind pores. In this study, combining inverse and direct characterization gives valuable insights into the pore structure of lime plasters. Estimating pore structure-related parameters using sound absorption performance offers great promise as a non-destructive tool in material characterization as long as in-situ sound absorption measurement methods are accessible.
Citation Formats
I. Meriç Nursal, “Pore structure analysis of lime plasters through inverse characterization based on sound propagation model and laboratory tests,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2024.