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The work presented in this thesis was developed at the Department of Civil Engineering of University of Minho. This work is eminently experimental and intends to be a valuable contribution to a better insight on the mechanics of stone masonry.

In order to improve the knowledge on the mechanical properties of granite, the constitutive behavior of distinct granite types under tensile and compressive loading was successfully obtained through a set of experimental tests associated to suitable displacement control. Afterwards, elastic and fracture properties were derived and statistical correlations among these parameters were obtained. The selection of different types of granitic rocks made possible the analysis of the influence of some microstructural aspects, such as grain size and internal texture on the large range of elastic and fracture properties. Other aspects that can explain the variation of the tensile and compressive engineering properties, like weathering state, moisture content and physical properties were also investigated. The possibility of predicting the mechanical and physical properties of the granites by simple and economical nondestructive techniques, such as the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and the Schmidt hammer rebound number (N) was studied. A set of statistical correlations between the elastic and strength properties and the experimental data obtained through nondestructive techniques were defined. Moreover, a discussion of the factors (moisture content, weathering state and internal texture) that possibly induce variations on the velocity measurements and on the rebound number was performed.