Durability Of Concrete Stairway At Mogao Grottoes Of Dunhuang

The Mogao Grottoes as a world cultural heritage, attracts thousands of tourists every year for its beautifully murals and painted sculpture.Concrete stairway is inevitably suffered the ageing and durability problem due to its material and the specific environment conditions. Theoretically, the durability of concrete structure is a research topic in concrete engineering. Great achievements have been made in China and abroad about concrete durability until now, but these results are mainly concentrated in coastal or marine area. Adversely, concrete durability in arid environment is seldom studied. This thesis studies about the durability of concrete stairway in Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, representing the typical character of the arid northwest of China. And the mainly conclusions are as follows:(1) According to the in-site investigation and analysis about the status survey of concrete stairway, the main reasons responsible for the structure degradation at Grottoes are obtained.(2) On the basis of the weather conditions of Mogao Grottoes, the simulating laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the durability of concrete which under the freeze-thaw cycle condition.(3) This thesis makes an emphatically analysis of the carbonation model in Mogao Grottoes area. From the analysis of the material content of X-ray diffraction test, an incomplete carbonization of concrete is confirmed in arid area. A carbonation model was used to predict the concrete carbonation of Mogao Grottoes in the future.This thesis carried out with simulating test and field detection test, taking into consideration of the weather condition, and reveals the concrete durability in arid area. The research results can provide the practical guidance to the reinforcement and reconstruction of the concrete stairway at Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, China.