The quantification of total and effective porosities in travertines using PIA and saturation-buoyancy methods and the implication for strength and durability

The porosity of travertine controls its strength characters and durability. In this study, seven travertine samples were collected from mines in Iran. The saturation-buoyancy (SB) method was used to determine density, water absorption by weight, effective porosity, and total porosity. Petrographic image analysis (PIA) was applied to measure total porosity. Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of travertine samples was obtained under both oven-dried and saturated conditions. The results showed that mean PIA total porosity of samples is 2–4 times more than total porosity obtained from the SB method. The underestimation of total porosity by SB method was attributed to pores type and pores size. According to regression analyses, the UCS shows a better correlation with SB effective porosity than SB total porosity. Based on results, water absorption by weight has a large impact on UCS of travertines. The SB effective porosity shows high correlation with water absorption by weight. There is a good power relation between PIA total porosity and UCS of travertines.