Why you need to know about spalling


Friday 11th July 2014

It is easy to find pictures of spalling bricks at google. This happens because water trapped in the pores of ceramic and concrete expands during freezing and breaks it down. This should be a concern to people making architectural and sculpture pieces for outdoors. How do you know if your ceramic will spall? It needs open and closed pore space if over 1% closed insight-live.com/glossary/72">porosity. Measure the percentage gain in weight (of a test tile) after a 24-hour water soak, that is 'open porosity'. Then boil for 5 hours and it will soak up more water, measure that as the % closed porosity. The second number needs to be 20% greater than the first. Why? The closed space provides a place for expansion as the water is freezing.

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

Outdoor Weather Resistant Ceramics, Sculpture


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