A harmonized dataset and exploratory non-destructive screening framework for characterizing physical and mechanical interrelationships in traditional heritage materials

Description

Mohammed A. Albadrani assembles a harmonised dataset for old building materials and asks whether gentle, non-destructive measures can hint at hidden strength. Historic stone and earth-based materials vary wildly, and drilling samples out of heritage walls is rarely allowed. His 2026 analysis groups materials into seven classes, from stone to earth composites, and lines up their porosity, density, moisture uptake, strength, and heat flow. Simple links are then tested between the easy measures and the hard ones.

Porosity tracked compressive strength moderately, with a fit value of 0.62, while density tracked heat conduction strongly at 0.85. A pattern-finding method grouped the materials along one main axis that carried 82.7 percent of the variation. Albadrani stresses that seven classes make these trends exploratory, not laws. He sketches a five-step path that would feed such measures into building information models, flagging fragile elements for conservation teams.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13562537