Abstract
The application of ceramic elements in exterior environments such as facades and floors is a common practice, even when more compliant supports are applied. Such conditions naturally conduct to significant stress increase at the level of the system bonding of ceramic elements. For example, thermal differential expansions in the different materials as result of the temperature gradient from the external surface up to internal layers can build-up stresses at the interfaces, in a magnitude level in excess of the bonding stresses binding them. A proposed finite element modeling was applied in previous works, in which the temperature field distribution from the origin of the thermal source induces a temperature variation carried out incrementally in the simulation. A temperature gradient is assumed from the exposed face, through the elements interfaces until the internal ceramic-adhesive mass. Using the same numerical model, this research led to the evaluation of the equivalent von Mises thermal stress criterion. Adopting different elastic modulus combinations for the tile adhesive and the joint grout, it is recognized how much this property can impact the final stresses and contribute to the best option about the field of application. In fact, independently from the adopted conditions, it is shown that best joint performance is particularly achieved when elastic modulus of the joint grout has lower values, such as 0.1 GPa. On another hand, other key parameters are also very relevant, as the case of the joint width and the support rigidity level.
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