EVALUATION OF PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BRICKS USED IN CASTLE STRUCTURES OF BYZANTINE PERIOD

In this study, physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics of brick material used in castle structures of byzantine period constructed in different cities and different climatic conditions of turkey shall be analyzed. in this scope, brick samples analyzed in this study are provided from castle structures of byzantine period constructed in trabzon, kütahya, amasra and istanbul. chemical composition of bricks is identified by means of icp-es, their mineralogical structure is determined by xrd analysis, whereas mechanical tests are applied to observe their resistance and pozzolanic activity experiments are made on ground bricks having dimension of powder. according to results of xrd and pozzolanic activity analysis, entire bricks having kilned under low temperatures carry pozzolanic characteristics. bricks of kütahya castle have low unit weights and high porosity and their mechanical characteristic is lower than that of bricks of other castles. samples taken from trabzon castle have superior characteristics when compared to other samples in terms of physical and mechanical properties. as for bricks of yoros and amasra castle, they represent similar features. as a result of ultrasound speed measurements, it is analyzed that mechanical characteristics of historical castles can be estimated by means of nondestructive methods.