The effect of saturation Methods on natural gypsum rocks

Abstract

When the gypsum rock is exposed to the relative humidity in a closed environment for a continuous period, the result is an increase in the weight of these rocks after the passage of the first 24 hours, and there is no effect on the percentage of gypsum that the rocks contain, as the weight increase occurred at the same time for the different gypsum ratios. For rocks submerged in potable water and located within a humid environment, most of these rocks witnessed weight gain, with some exhibiting dissolving behavior. As for the gypsum rocks submerged with water saturated with aqueous calcium sulfate salt, they witnessed weight gain without any solubility. It is worth noting the important effect that relative humidity plays in the atmosphere at high levels, as it stimulated the saturation property to cover and overcome the famous property of gypsum rocks, which is the melting at high humidity.