Material Consultancy ​

Construction materials are affected by changes in boundary conditions. Taken together, these actions are capable of modifying the properties for which the material was selected, significantly affecting its behavior and as a result, the useful life of the buildings. The characterization of materials and their durable state is therefore crucial when addressing the study of any type of built structure.

In response to the growing need of having to work with different materials in the field of engineering and consultancy, INES has developed a consultancy on materials, whose primary value is based on solid training and expertise in the field of both traditional materials (stone, ceramics and lime mortar) and their application to heritage restoration, and modern organic and inorganic materials. This training and expertise have been gained over years of close collaboration with research centers. All this allows us to address any issue related to building materials and maintenance, and gives us the ability to design diagnostic lines and the necessary intervention solutions.

Example of durability studies undertaken:

• Petrological and petrophysical characterization of traditional masonry structure materials (stone, tile and lime mortar).
• Location of the likely source quarries of stone materials.
• Assessment and diagnosis of the deterioration processes acting on the materials (damage mapping, mapping of wetlands and salt content).
• Assessment of products suitability for the treatment of materials (masonry, concrete, ceramics and mortars).
• Monitoring of effectiveness of treatments for building materials repair.
• Quality control of materials applied to restoration.
• Characterization campaigns for aluminous cement structures.
• Assessment of structures corrosion state.
• Characterization of electrochemical corrosion parameters: power and electrical resistivity mapping.
• Characterization study of aggressive elements on construction materials and constructed elements.
• Studies on accelerated aggressive elements for concrete.
• Study of concrete structures affected by expansive reactions: ettringite formation and alkali aggregate reactions.
• Effect of deicing salts on concrete.
• Monitoring of protection systems.
• Evaluation of cathodic protection facilities.
• Design of reinforcement protection systems.