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Fire Resistance of Minerals and Rocks

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Stone in Architecture
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Abstract

Urban fires have severely damaged stone in the past. Most affected are granites, quartz sandstones, limestones, dolostones, and marbles. Major conflagrations in many European cities during World War II left numerous ruins for the study of damage to stone. The behavior of minerals and rocks at high temperatures principally resembles solar heating-cooling cycles of rock and stone; these can lead to cracking and warping of thin stone panels. These are relatively slow processes compared with the spontaneous heating in major fires (Sect. 2.11). Uneven volume (linear) expansion of minerals may cause the disruption of stone and concrete during a fire. All minerals expand when heated.

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Winkler, E.M. (1997). Fire Resistance of Minerals and Rocks. In: Stone in Architecture. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10070-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10070-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-10072-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-10070-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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