Degradation and sustainable renovation of heritage buildings envelope

The aim of the doctoral dissertation was to define the framework for sustainable renovation of\ud heritage buildings, particularly of the building envelope as the most exposed part. The\ud research was focused on the damage that could be caused by climate change or seismic loads.\ud As a part of the laboratory tests, several mortar and injection grout compositions based on\ud calcium binders with or without mineral additives, suitable for renovation and/or\ud strengthening of the building envelope were designed and tested. It was found that mineral\ud additives such as limestone powder, slag and tuff have a beneficial effect of on the properties\ud of mortars and injection grouts. In continuation, the brick wallets were built with developed\ud mortars and the influence of freeze/thaw cycles on their mechanical properties and durability\ud was evaluated. The wallets built with lime or lime-slag mortar were able to withstand at least\ud 50 freeze/thaw cycles without any effect on their mechanical properties, while after 150\ud freeze/thaw cycles, the damage was reflected in the reduction of modulus of elasticity. In situ\ud test performed on a stone masonry building enabled us to evaluate the quality and\ud effectiveness of grout injection (using cement or cement-lime grouts) as the chosen\ud sustainable strengthening procedure. The results of the performed seismic analysis based on\ud the experimentally obtained mechanical properties of masonry showed, that in the case of the\ud type of walls under consideration, an adequate level of seismic resistance can be achieved also\ud by using combined cement-lime grouts, which are more suitable for strengthening of heritage\ud buildings