Salt crystallization in the Grotto Hall of the New Palace in Potsdam

Author: Steffen Laue
English version by Sandra Leithäuser

The Grotto Hall in the New Palais, Potsdam

The Grotto Hall is located in the ground floor of the New Palais in Sanssouci Castle Park. It was built between 1765-1769. Walls, ceilings and floors are decorated with a variety of different building- and decoration materials such as minerals, rocks, fossils, conchylia and stucco, presenting an exceptional collection of geo scientific specimen. The pieces are embedded in the walls and ceilings with gypsum mortar. A variety of damages are visible on the specimen. The most prominent damage can be found by the windows facing the park. In general, the intensity of the damage decreases towards the direction of the castles interior. Exploratory investigations have shown that salt crystallization play an important role in the weathering processes of the Grotto Hall. Salt minerals crystallize on the walls and in close proximity of the wall surface, causing the destruction of the building materials.

Salt and indoor-climate in the Grotto Hall

As a method of investigation for the determination of the damage processes, a method for monitoring specific reference areas in combination with climate measurements was chosen [Laue:2002]Title: Verwitterung von Naturstein durch lösliche Salze an wechselfeuchter Luft
Author: Laue, Steffen
. It was not possible to take samples for quanititative salt analysis in the Grotto Hall. In the efflorescence samples the two forms of sodium sulphate, thenardite [Na₂SO₄] and mirabilite [Na₂SO₄•10H₂0] were detected. A few samples also tested positive for gypsum, which may originate from the Grotto mortar and therefore has not necessarily crystallized. The sources of Na⁺ salt ions are probably due to some alkali building materials (Portland cements), which have been introduced into the building for stabilization purposes at throughout its history. These building materials contain alkali (e.g. Na⁺) and react to become alkali carbonates. Under suitable moisture conditions they react with other autochtone salts, for example SO₄^2--ions of the gypsum mortar, and change into easily soluble salts, like sodium sulphate [Arnold:1985b]Title: Moderne alkalische Baustoffe und die Probleme bei der Konservierung von Baudenkmälern
Author: Arnold, Andreas
.

Figure 1 shows the daily average value of the air temperature and relative humidity in the Grotto Hall from January 1998 to January 1999. The climate curve is typical for an unheated room: The indoor-climate mirrors the outside climate in a subdued form. The temperature fluctuates between 5°C and 20°C, the relative humidity varies mostly between 40% and 75%, only during a longer dry cold period in December the relative humidity sank to values around 30%.

• Indoor-climate in the Grotto Hall
• 

Climate measurements in combination with the observation of the reference areas showed that salt crystallizations of both sodium sulphate forms took place throughout the whole year. This was due to the following reasons: The ion- rich solution inside the walls, consisting of moisture that was introduced by rising damp and water entering the external wall, evaporates in the top surface area of the walls. As evaporation takes place, the salt solution becomes more saturated and the crystallization of mirabilte takes place. If the relative humidity level sinks, mirabilite changes to become thenardite, depending on temperature and relative humidity. At increasing relative humidity levels the re- formation of mirabilite may occur (see [Steiger.etal:1998b]Title: Bedingungen für die Kristallisation verschiedener Salzhydrate am Beispiel Thenardit/Mirabilit
Author: Steiger, Michael; Dannecker, Walter
und [Laue:2002]Title: Verwitterung von Naturstein durch lösliche Salze an wechselfeuchter Luft
Author: Laue, Steffen
. For instance, the mineral thenardite crystallizes at a temperature of 20°C, below 76% RH, above 76% mirabilite crystallizes. The transformation process thenartdite to mirabilite is associated with an increase in volume of 314%, as described by Price and Brimblecombe [Price.etal:1994]Title: Preventing salt damage in porous materials
Author: Price, Clifford A.; Brimblecomb, Peter
. Every time the relative humidity reaches the critical level, where the phase change respectively takes place, the re-crystallization processes lead to damages. Since the temperature as well as the relative humidity in the Grotto Hall fluctuates all the time, the critical climate values are often exceeded, causing much damage.

Sequence of damage processes

The sequence of damage processes was detected for the Grotto Hall and can be described as follows: due to moisture in the substrate and surface water (splash back), moisture enters the masonry walls. When the masonry solution evaporates, the salt solution becomes more saturated and the salts start crystallizing to become mirabilite (at the determined temperature ranges in the Grotto Hall). When the climate is dry – between approx. 60% and 75% RH and in dependence of temperature- the dehydration of mirabilite takes place [Na₂SO₄•10H₂0], transforming into thenardite [Na₂SO₄]. Mirabilite is unstable in these humidity conditions and looses its water of crystallization, then thenardite crystallizes. At increasing relative humidity levels, the hydration from thenardite to mirabilite occurs. This crystallization process is accompanied by an increase in volume. While hydration and dehydration processes occur, probably the break down of one crystal system is rapidly followed by the crystallization of the other hydration stage. The hydration and dehydration effect, leads to continuous re-crystallization of the salts. The previously described damages are due to the associated increase and decrease in volume.

Literature

[Arnold:1985b]	Arnold, Andreas (1985): Moderne alkalische Baustoffe und die Probleme bei der Konservierung von Baudenkmälern. In: Snethlage, Rolf (eds.): Natursteinkonservierung, Internationales Kolloquium, München, Bayer. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, 152-161.
[Laue:2002]	Laue, Steffen (2002): Verwitterung von Naturstein durch lösliche Salze an wechselfeuchter Luft. In: Institut für Steinkonservierung e.V. (IFS) (eds.): IFS-Tagung 2002: Salze im historischen Natursteinmauerwerk, IFS, Mainz, 19-30.
[Price.etal:1994]	Price, Clifford A.; Brimblecomb, Peter (1994): Preventing salt damage in porous materials. In:: Preventive conservation: practice, theory and research. Preprints of the contributions to the Ottawa Congress, 12-16 September 1994, International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 90-93.
[Steiger.etal:1998b]	Steiger, Michael; Dannecker, Walter (1998): Bedingungen für die Kristallisation verschiedener Salzhydrate am Beispiel Thenardit/Mirabilit, interner Bericht, 123-133.

crystallization of a dissolved salt

relative humidity