Four different porous limestone lithotypes were collected from thecellar system of Budapest (Hungary). All lithologies have highporosities ranging from 16 to 30%. The laboratory analyses focusedon the mechanical properties testing to assess the strength changesdue to water saturation. The density, ultrasonic sound wavepropagation, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and indirecttensile strength (determined by Brazilian test) test were measuredon cylindrical specimens according to EN and ASTM standards inthe laboratory. Both dry and water-saturated samples were tested.The results indicate that four lithotypes have distinct strengthparameters, and both the UCS and the indirect tensile strengthdecrease with water saturation. The largest decrease in strength wasobserved at fine-grained porous limestone and at fine- to mediumgrainedlimestone with a decrease in strength of over 50%. On thecontrary, the strength loss of coarse porous limestone is in the orderof 16 to 14% of UCS and indirect tensile strength, respectively.Comparing the data set of this study with previous works on variouslimestones, a good correlation was found between density andBrazilian tensile strength. The presented data set was used as theinput parameters for calculating the stability of dry and waterinundated cellars. The FEM (Finite Element Methods) calculationsof cellar stability indicate that the displacement of water-saturatedcellars is nearly triple of the dry ones and that the factor of safetyreduced from 1.74 in air-dry condition to 1.07 in water-saturatedconditions.
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