The Experimental Study on Consolidation of RTV for Wet-Area Earthen Ruins in Southwest China

Abstract

It is a worldwide difficulty to preserve earth monument in wet area. To solve this problem, Physical Chemistry Institute of Zhejiang University in China developed a consolidation agent named RTV (organopolysiloxanes+tetraethylorthosilicate). But the study on this consolidation agent is still in its initial stage at present for most of its experimental researches are limited to east china and no research reports aimed at wet area in southwest China were found so far. To check out the efficiency of this consolidation agent for earth in wet area, southwest China, a consolidating experiment was conducted by applying this consolidation agent to soil samples from kiln Qionglai earthen monuments located in outskirt of Chengdu city, the capital of Sichuan province. In this experiment, the changes of weight, permeating speed and depth and compressive strength of specimens after consolidating were investigated and compared with those for northwest area. The study shows that RTV consolidation agent developed by Physical Chemistry Institute of Zhejiang University is also effective to a certain degree for the earth monument in wet area, southwest China.