| ABSTRACT: | IRT MONITORING IN PLANNED PRESERVATION OF BUILT CULTURAL HERITAGE
E. Rosina1, N.P. Avdelidis2, A. Moropoulou3, S. Della Torre4, G. Suardi5
1 Politecnico di Milano, DCSA - Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy ; 2 IRT & Materials Consultancy,
Agia Triada Ano Volos, Greece;3 Section of Materials Science & Engineering, School of Chemical
Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, Greece; 4 Politecnico di
Milano, BEST - Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy ; 5 Restorer, Milano, Italy.
The aim of this research was to develop IRT procedures for the monitoring of restoration
interventions on building surfaces (i.e. application of protective films, water repellent, restoration of
plaster delamination), the surveillance of the risks areas (i.e. risk for dew, infiltration, thermal bridges,
window frames). The possibility to include IRT among the monitoring techniques for the planned
conservation depends on the reliability of the procedures in the field and the low costs. In such cases,
the tests can be repeated in time and can be applied on the highest number of buildings, according to
the philosophy of the planned conservation. The goal is to find the parameters of feasibility and
effectiveness of the in situ IRT tests throughout the in field experience of a study case. S. Maria
presso S. Paolo church, in Cantù, is a 15th Century building; the interior is frescoed and its decorated
plasters have been under restoration recently. During the preliminary tests (passive and active IRT,
psycrometry and climate monitoring, water content measurements on the surface and inside the
masonry), a localised infiltration, causing a local damage, was found at the bottom of the masonry and
at the end of the analysis, the condensation, which is distributed at any highness from the floor and
that was responsible for most of the frescoes damage, was also realised. The church is seldom used
and the restoration did not include the addition of a heating plant. Because it is not convenient to
change the microclimatic conditions, the preservation plan had to include temperature monitoring of
the risk surfaces and control how the frescoes permeability could change due to the application of
water repellent and restoration products in the years after the intervention. Finally, micro-structural
analysis on collected samples for the study of their microstructure also took place.
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