Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 30143019

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Construction and Building Materials

journal hom epage: www. el se vie r.c om /l oc at e/c o nb u ild m a t

Strength enhancement of Eskisehir tuf ashlars in Turkey

Ercan Emir , Adnan Konuk, Glnaz Daloglu
Department of Mining Engineering, Eski,sehir Osmangazi University, 26480 Me,selik, Eski,sehir,

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 4 May 2009
Received in revised form 11 February
2011 Accepted 21 February 2011

Keywords:
Tuf
Building
stone Ashlar
Slaked lime

Turkey

a b s t r a c t
Tuf has always been a type of material used as natural building stone in building sector since
early times. The reason for such a common use despite its low strength properties and high
porosity is the fact that tuf is lightweight, easy to process and has good isolation properties.
Another practical area for tuf in building sector is its use in cement production as pozzolan.
Making use of tufs high porosity and of cement production process, what is aimed in this
study is enhancement of strength properties of white tuf blocks in the EskisehirDerbent Ciftligi
region by means of treatment in slaked lime bath. Half of the tuf samples were kept in slaked
lime bath for 1 day and the other half were kept for 1 week and then they were subjected to
uniaxial compression tests (UCS). The tests were conducted on the sample groups kept for 7
days and 28 days under atmospheric conditions like those of concrete tests. Analysis of variance among the test results showed that it was appropriate to keep tuf blocks in lime-water
for a max- imum of 1 day and to air-dry them for 7 days. This method proved successful in
ensuring a 100% increase in UCS of the white tufs in the Eskisehir-Derbent Ciftligi region.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

Introduction
In the Cappadocia region of Turkey, which has a steppe
climate with a great temperature diference between day and
night, people have lived in the rooms curved within tuf for
years. Dating back more than 1500 years, most of these
structures have survived up to today. A signicant example
among these structures is Midas (Yazilikaya) Monument to the
southeast of Eskisehir, which was sculpted by Phrygians in
600 BC.
In Anatolia today, tuf blocks produced by means of
block cut- ting method with in situ slicing are used as natural
building stones. Having various sizes depending on demand,
it is usually cut into 30 30 60 cm blocks. Most of these
ashlar mines are found in the Cappadocia region. There is
also an ashlar mine operating in Derbent Ciftligi, Eskisehir.
Although no geotechnical studies were found about
assessment of tufs as natural building stones in building
sector, there are stud- ies in which physical and
mechanical properties of the tufs from several regions
were determined [110]. According to these stud- ies, tufs
in Turkey can be described as volcanic rocks with high
porosity and low strength. These studies also describe the
pink tufs found in Midas Monument in Eskisehir as having
higher strength than those of white tufs [1,2,5].
Another practical usage area of tufs in building sector is
its use in cement production as pozzolan. Depending on
their forming

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 222 239 37 50; fax: +90 222 229
3613.
E-mail address: eemir@ogu.edu.tr (E. Emir).

characteristics, pozzolans are divided into two groups as

natural and articial pozzolans. Including mostly pyroclastic
rocks such as volcanic tuf, volcanic ash and volcanic glass,
siliceous and alu- mina materials present in nature (which
display hydraulic binding property when combined with
calcium hydroxide and water after they are made negrains) are referred to as natural pozzolans [11]. There are
very few studies about the use of tufs in cement
production in Turkey [12,13].
The aim of this study is to enhance strength properties of
Eskisehir-Derbent Ciftligi white tuf so that its use as a
natural building stone is increased. It was expected that
strength proper- ties of tuf could be enhanced by means of
lling the pores of tuf having high porosity with any material
that could lead to increased strength. A study in the relevant
literature where a similar method was employed was
conducted by Binda et al. in 1997 concerning the method
to choose the most suitable mortar to be used in the
injection and repair of stone masonry walls [14]. DArienzo
et al. conducted a study into consolidation and preservation
of new polymeric nanocomposites and Neopoliten yellow
tufs [15]. Also in the same year, Vacchiano et al. did a
research on maintenance and preservation of historic
buildings of gray tuf with polymeric resin [16]. These
studies are based on in situ application aimed at
preserving old buildings, whereas the present study focuses
on the use of tuf blocks in new buildings. Although many
material types could have been used to ll in tuf pores
and increase tuf strength, slaked lime was chosen for this
study. Tufs use in building sector as pozzolan and the well
known pozzolanic reaction between pozzolan and lime in
cement production played a key role in this preference.

0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

reserved. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.02.005

E. Emir et al. / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011)

2. Study area and regional geology

The Derbent Ciftligi region is situated around 20 km to the
southeast of Eskisehir (Fig. 1). The reason why the Derbent
Ciftligi region was chosen as the study area is that it is
convenient for transportation and there is still an active tuf
ashlar mine in it.
Sariz et al. examined the region geology in 1987 and
dened the units in the region as Derbent Ciftligi Ophiolites
and Suvatdere Formation. Sariz et al. also determined that
the clay deposits, a lo- cal formation, were formed genetically
in a condition where the tufs and tuftes from Neogene aged
lacustrine serial were weath- ered surcially and ground
waters were inuential to some extent. Sariz et al. further
identied the rock types comprising Derbent Ciftligi Ophiolites
and Suvatdere Formation units. Accordingly, Derbent Ciftligi
Ophiolites are Triassic old and formed by dunites, peridotites
and serpantines. Dunites and peridotites transformed into
serpantines as a result of fracture deformation. This unit is

30143019

3015

covered by Pliocen aged Suvatdere Formation. Suvatdere

Forma- tion consists of sandstone, tuf, tufte, marl, sandy
limestone and andesitic tuf [17].
3. Physical and mechanical properties
As a part of the study, a group of tests were carried out in
order to determine physical, elastic and strength properties
of Derbent Ciftligi white tufs. The tests were performed in
accordance with International Society of Rock Mechanics
(ISRM) suggestions [18 20] and several relevant Turkish
standards [2123]. The results from these tests are presented
in Table 1.
Forming mechanisms of igneous rocks suggest that
magma cooling down slowly forms a nonporous structure
or one with a bit structure while cooling down quickly
leads to structures with high porosity or in other words
porous structures like tuf. The test results given in Table 1
show that Derbent Ciftligi white tufs also

Fig. 1. Location map of the study

area.

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