Laboratory Tests of the Fissure Impervious Materials in Longmen Grottoes

Abstract

Among all kinds of environmental geological factors, the water permeability has the most significant influence on grottoes. The main reason for the destruction of caves is the recurrence and persistence of water seepage. Longmen grottoes mainly used epoxy resin and superfine cement grouting materials in the early seepage prevention. Superfine cement has the problem of efflorescence. The epoxy resin material has a large shrinkability and poor durability. Laboratory tests of the impervious materials were carried out. The results shown that the modified epoxy resin, compared with the waterborne epoxy resin, demonstrated higher strength, lower shrinkage and less volatile. Among all the laboratory test schemes, two samples of the modified epoxy resin which were added several adjuvants had the lower shrinkage and volatile, the higher strength and the stronger acid and alkali resistance, which possessed favourable comprehensive performance and were proved to be the best impervious materials in this study.