At present, constructional geomaterials make the largest (by volume) group of extracted mineral raw materials. Despite their low unit price, they significantly contribute to the economy in many senses. Ongoing worldwide development of infrastructure, rapid urbanisation and the need for maintenance of the existing structures exert enormous pressure on the environment due to the extraction of new materials from natural resources, along with their processing and transportation.
The resources, processing, testing, and proper use of construction geomaterials thus deserve attention from the scientific community due to their long-term use, importance for the society, and sensitivity to the environment. As our knowledge of many aspects of these materials is still rather limited, the session aims to focus on the following topics:
• characterisation of traditional raw materials and their products, such as natural and dimension stone, aggregates (crushed stone, sands and gravels), inorganic binders (lime, natural cements and hydraulic limes), bricks, clay, earth and adobe;
• use of geomaterials in concrete and service life of such materials;
• recovery of historic knowledge of constructional geomaterials processing and use;
• assessment of durability;
• comparison of natural and anthropogenic decay of constructional geomaterials, the role of human impact on their service life;
• study of interactions and material compatibility between traditional construction materials and modern restoration products;
• conservation of geomaterials in heritage structures;
• availability of traditional materials in modern society, including comparative studies between small-scale production of materials (e.g. natural cement) and large-scale industrial processing;
• use of local materials as a part of cultural and/or industrial and technical heritage;
• technological properties and their testing;
• on site and laboratory standardized (ASTM, EN, etc.) and non-standardized testing techniques and their limitations for constructional geomaterials’ characterization;
• geological evaluation of geomaterials’ deposits;
• compositional and genetic aspects influencing extraction, processing, and utilization of constructional geomaterials;
• use of quarry waste, utilization of stone extraction and processing by-products;
• environmental issues.