Ceramics-Silikáty 55, (2) 176 - 182 (2011)

The paper presents some results of our experimental analysis of ceramic cladding element frost resistance, particular attention being paid to the application of the frequency inspection method. Three different sets of ceramic tiles of the Ia class to EN 14 411 B standard made by various manufacturers have been analyzed. The ceramic tiles under investigation have been subjected to freeze-thaw-cycle-based degradation in compliance with the relevant ČSN EN ISO 10545-12 standard. Furthermore, accelerated degradation procedure has been applied to selected test specimens, consisting in reducing the temperature of water soaked ceramic tiles in the course of the degradation cycles down –70°C. To verify the correctness of the frequency inspection results, additional physical properties of the ceramic tiles under test have been measured, such as, the ceramic tile strength limit, modulus of elasticity and modulus of deformability, resulting from the flexural tensile strength tests, integrity defect and surface micro-geometry tracking. It has been proved that the acoustic method of frequency inspection is a sensitive indicator of the structure condition and can be applied to the ceramic cladding element frost resistance and service life prediction assessment.