Lorenzo G.

We report the results of a research aimed at studying the fracture toughness of clay brick blocks used in aerated facades and fixed with mechanical connections. We evaluated the mechanical parameters of the material and carried out some analyses to measure the shape of the pores. Two techniques were used to evaluate its porous structure: the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and the digital image analysis (DIA). Results show that fracture toughness depends on porosity and in particular, on the dimension o