Multiscale Fire Damage Assessment of Historical Stone Trabeated Hypostyle Halls

A proper scientific fire damage assessment programme is important to ensure safety and adopt optimum restoration strategies in case of fire accidents to monuments. This paper proposes and demonstrates a comprehensive multiscale scientific framework for fire damage assessment carried out on a historical trabeated hypostyle stone structure constructed in granite, that comprises visual, in-situ, microstructure and destructive evaluations of the affected material. Visual and non-destructive evaluations were used to make a first assessment of the structural condition of the monument, which also guided in categorising the structural elements based on damage. Further micro-analytical characterisation and destructive tests were carried out in a correlated sequential approach to explore the multiscale effects of fire in granite. The outputs of this systematic study are critical in deciding upon the course of action, namely restoration/reconstruction based on safety considerations, and the multiscale methodology can be adopted for similar fire-damage assessment in any stone construction.