The density and water content as function of P and S wave velocity in the calcarenitic stones of Southern Apulia).

In Apulia Region there is a dense historical-architectural and archaeological heritage built with soft calcarenitic stones. These materials present significant problems of conservation related to their low durability and therefore know the intrinsic characteristics is crucial to evaluate the performance properties and their susceptibility to degradation. To evaluate the physical-mechanical characteristics of the stone materials is very useful to use non-destructive and non-invasive technologies such as ultrasonic, applicable both in situ and in the laboratory. The factors influencing the propagation of elastic waves in the rocks are the structure, density, size and shape of the granules, porosity, anisotropy, the water content, stress and temperature. In this paper the effects of saturation on the elastic wave velocity and the relationship between density and elastic wave velocity were studied on Leccese stone. The ultrasonic P and S wave velocity measurements were performed on cubic samples, under natural condictions (e.g. without applying external pressure on the samples), using the transmission method. The variations of the P and S wave velocity were related to both the density and to the percentages of water content.