Construction pathology is defined as that science that studies the different physical injuries that appear in construction elements of buildings or their parts.
Injuries
The lesion is the visible manifestation that a material or a construction element is damaged, it is the warning of the existence of a problem and is also the starting point of the pathological study to be carried out.
Injuries are mainly classified into 3 types:
- Physics.
- Mechanics.
- Chemical and Biological.
Physical Injuries
They are those caused by physical phenomena, such as pollution, weather agents, etc. The most common physical injuries are:
- Humidity implies the presence of water, in any of its manifestations, in a quantity greater than desired inside the materials or elements. They are classified as: Construction, capillary, infiltration, condensation and accidental.
- Dirt initially affects aesthetics, but it can lead to chemical reactions that are more serious.
- Erosion is usually organized by the action of atmospheric agents as they act, continuously but inexorably, on exposed surfaces.
Mechanical Injuries
In general, they produce the most important injuries that usually affect the safety and resistance of materials and elements. It is a type of injury that can be the cause of others and is classified as follows:
- Deformations are one of the typical mechanical injuries and involve a modification in the external shape of the element affected by it, which may be due to: Deflections, buckling, warping or collapse.
- Cracks and Fissures are uncontrolled openings that can appear at any time, presenting very different forms. There is no unanimity for their delimitation. They may be due to: Excess load or hygrothermal origin. As a general rule, the cause of the crack is found in a direction perpendicular to it.
- Detachments are the fall of coatings, whether continuous or discontinuous, due to various causes such as: Humidity, deformation movements, cracking, faulty placement or use of an inadequate adhesive.
- Mechanical erosion means the loss of material due to accidental or continuous impacts of mechanical or climatic origin or friction with more resistant materials.
Chemical Injuries
For them to appear, there must be elements capable of decomposing and reacting chemically, transforming into active ingredients that attack the materials and construction elements, causing their decomposition and consequently the loss of their initial characteristics. Among them we find:
- Efflorescence, are usually caused by the salts of a material dissolved by the water that exists or has penetrated its interior and that, upon reaching a surface, evaporates, leaving a crystallized mineral sediment.
- Oxidation and corrosion, the metals used in construction are less stable than the minerals from which they come and there is a natural tendency to recover this state. In oxidation, metals in the presence of oxygen undergo a transformation that initially affects the surface in contact with the atmosphere. Corrosion requires the formation of an electrolytic cell. (An iron in the oxidation phase can increase up to 11 times its volume).
- Organisms, of animal or plant origin, attack superficially both by themselves and by the chemical products they secrete.
- Chemical erosion appears predominantly in stone materials due to the reactions of its own components.
To prevent these pathologies, it is necessary to preliminarily count on the construction of the work, with correct management, calculation and design of the building project. Based on the BIM methodology, high efficiency can be obtained from the processes that lead to optimizing control, management and planning in the comprehensive design of a construction project.
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