83 Statistical Models for Predicting the Mechanical Properties of Travertine Building Stones After Freeze-Thaw Cycles Amin Jamshidi, Mohammad Reza Nikudel, Mashalah Khamehchiyan, and Ahmad Zalooli Abstract Freeze-thaw is one of the most powerful weathering agents that may cause a rapid change in the mechanical properties of stones, and thus limit their durability. Consequently, determining the mechanical properties of stones after freeze-thaw is important to select the natural building stones for outdoor applications, which are exposed excessive freeze-thaw cycles. The purpose of this study is propose statistical models for predicting the mechanical properties of travertine building stones after freeze-thaw test. For this, 12 travertine samples were selected and their physical and mechanical properties including density (ρ), water absorption (Wa), uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and P-wave velocity (V P ) were determined. Then, freeze-thaw test up to 60 cycles was carried out and mechanical properties including the UCS and V P of the samples were measured. Using data analysis, statistical models for predicting the mechanical properties of deteriorated samples after freeze-thaw test were proposed. In these models, the mechanical property of samples after freeze-thaw was considered to be the dependent variable–dependent on the independent variables of the initial mechanical property of the samples and their water absorption. The results show that statistical models are in good accuracy for predicting the mechanical properties of samples, and thus a rapid durability assessment. Keywords Freeze-thaw Á Statistical models Á UCS Á V P 83.1 Introduction Travertine is a chemical sedimentary rock formed mostly in tectonic areas (Pentecost 2005). Nowadays travertine with different color, texture and pattern are widely used as building materials for construction and decoration purposes especially for outdoor applications such as flooring, paving and wall cladding. Freeze-thaw action is one of the most powerful physical weathering agents, which may cause a rapid change in the mechanical properties of travertines, and limit their dura- bility. Therefore, the resistance to deterioration (durability) should be evaluated before the selection of an appropriate building stone (Zappia et al. 1998). Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and P-wave velocity (V P ), are one of the most important mechanical properties to assess stones durability against weathering agents (Zezza 1990; Valdeon et al. 1996; Goudie 1999; Nicholson 2001; Benavente et al. 2004). However, change in the mechanical properties of stones due to weathering agents can affect their durability in the course of time (Jamshidi et al. 2013). Thus it is necessary to understand the change of mechanical properties of stones when freeze-thaw is con- sidered as one of the weathering agents. A. Jamshidi (&) Lorestan University, Khorramabad-Borujerd road, Khorramabad, Iran e-mail: jamshidi.geo85@yahoo.com M.R. Nikudel Á M. Khamehchiyan Á A. Zalooli Tarbiat Modares University, Jalal Ale Ahmad Highway, Tehran, Iran G. Lollino et al. (eds.), Engineering Geology for Society and Territory – Volume 8, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09408-3_83, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 477