Synonyms
Dimension stone; Natural stone
Definition
Building stone is a generic term referring to all naturally occurring rock (natural stone as defined by BSI 2002) used in the building construction industry, including a wide variety of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. If after quarrying, the rock has been selected and cut to specific sizes and shapes, it is referred as dimension stone (ASTM 2016).
The availability and durability of stones has made them a major contributor to the legacy of human history. Stones were widely used as structural elements, mostly as irregularly shaped large blocks usually closely fitted (without binders), in the construction of temples, monuments, fortifications, aqueducts, bridges, and housing.
Due to the development and technological improvement of tools and machinery building stones are now quarried in large scale as regularly shaped blocks that can be cut into a wide choice of slab thicknesses and sizes (Fig. 1) and can receive several...
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References
American Society for Testing and Material (2012) C1528–12 standard guide for selection of dimension stone. ASTM, West Conshohocken, 7 p
American Society for Testing and Material (2016) C119–16 standard terminology relating to dimension stone. ASTM, West Conshohocken, 7 p
BSI – British Standard Institution (2002) BS EN 12670: natural stone – terminology. BSI, London, 49 p
Ingham J (2011) Geomaterials under the microscope: a colour guide, 1st edn. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, 192 p
Winkler EM (1997) Stone in architecture: properties, durability, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin, 313 p
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de Oliveira Frascá, M.H.B., Chiodi Filho, C. (2018). Building Stone. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_37
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