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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 90 » Issue 12
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 125503 (2003) [4 pages]

Kinetics of Moisture Expansion in Fired Clay Ceramics: A (Time)1/4 Law

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Moira A. Wilson1,*, William D. Hoff1, Christopher Hall2, Bernard McKay1, and Anna Hiley1
1Manchester Centre for Civil & Construction Engineering, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom
2Centre for Materials Science & Engineering and School of Engineering & Electronics, University of Edinburgh, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, United Kingdom

Received 19 August 2002; published 26 March 2003

We report the results of experiments to estimate the moisture expansion of several modern and ancient clay brick ceramics from the time of manufacture. From these data we propose a new expansion law, in which the expansive strain increases as (age)1/4 approximately. Such time dependence is consistent with a mechanism in which expansion arises from a diffusion-controlled rehydration reaction on a linear or low-dimension structure. Our results provide new guidance for the engineering design of masonry and suggest a possible new method for archaeological dating of ceramics.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.125503
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.125503
PACS:
81.05.Je, 81.05.Rm

*Electronic address: moira.wilson@umist.ac.uk

 
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