Some Engineering Properties of Natural Building Cut Stones of Cyprus

Abstract

Natural building cut stones are being used in Cyprus for ages to build masonry structures. Almost all of the historical buildings in Cyprus are made of these natural cut stones. Although these cut stones are low cost construction materials, they are not widely used in these days. This is due to lack of knowledge causing incorrect construction methods and highly skilled labour requirement in constructing the walls. This study is done in order to bring more technical information about these stones for Engineers in Cyprus. Therefore, two quarries are selected and samples obtained were tested for some physical and mechanical properties. Traditional names of these natural cut stones are Meluşa Stone and Karpaz Stone. The physical properties such as bulk density, water absorption, specific gravity, apparent porosity, and voids ratio were measured. The mechanical properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength, direct tensile strength, splitting tensile strength and fire resistance were measured. From the results obtained it can be said that Meluşa stone behaved better than Karpaz stone. A regression analysis provided a polynomial relation between compressive strength and burning temperature.