ABSTRACT
India is a culturally rich nation due to the presence of enormous historical structures. There are several ancient temples with unique Hindu sculptures and architectural beauty. Some of the temples such as Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, Murudeshwar Temple in Karnataka and Tiruchandur Subramanya Temple in Tamil Nadu have been built very close to the sea coast. Such heritage and monument structures face the risk of deterioration of foundations due to moisture movement and saltwater intrusion. Leaving the monuments unprotected might lead to unrepairable damage to the foundation and eventual collapse of the structures. In this study, installation of bentonite based barriers were explored to prevent the migration of saltwater intrusion into the foundation of the monument structures, and to reduce the moisture variations around the foundation. The compacted bentonites are generally used as barrier materials in various Geoenvironmental applications and were explored for the heritage conservation for the first time in this study. The knowledge of bentonite characteristics for the conservation application was analyzed through scientific study. The hydraulic conductivity was estimated for four Indian bentonites of different plasticity at a compaction dry density of 1.2 Mg/m3 under the isochoric conditions with salt solution. Diffusion performance under the high ionic salt environment with the same density was also estimated under isochoric conditions using the through-diffusion technique. The bentonite B3 was found to be most suitable material to act as barrier against seawater. Based on values of diffusion characteristics, seawater will take around 12 years to diffuse across a 50 cm thick clay layer.
