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A method for risk of fracture analysis in massive wooden cultural heritage objects due to dynamic environmental variations

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Abstract

Most of the environmental specifications to preserve valuable collections assume hygrothermal equilibrium of the object with the surrounding environment. Though the assumption is valid for most of museum interiors, it does not reflect climate conditions in historic houses and churches whose specificity lies in dynamic temperature and relative humidity (RH) variations, particularly intense in cases of operating heating systems. The present paper analyses the risk of fracture in massive wooden cultural heritage objects, particularly endangered by gradients of moisture forming in their volume due to dynamic environmental variations. The study aimed at elucidating general trends as both crack formation and propagation depend on material parameters of a specific wooden element, which can vary even within the same wood species. A two-dimensional elastic model of a massive object made of pine wood was subjected to two types of RH variations: step and sinusoidal. The critical amplitude and duration of variations inducing crack propagation were determined for both variation types. The modelling showed that the risk of fracture was significantly higher for a sinusoidal variation than for a sudden RH drop. Therefore, sinusoidal variations should be considered the worst-case condition when analysing risk of fracture in wooden objects.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for granting access to the computing infrastructure built in the projects POIG.02.03.00-00-028/08 "PLATON—Science Services Platform" and POIG.02.03.00-00-110/13 "Deploying high-availability, critical services in Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN-HA)".

Funding

This work received funding from the Research Council of Norway in the framework of “SyMBoL–Sustainable Management of Heritage Building in a Long-term Perspective” Project [project no. 274749] as well as from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange [Grant PPN/PPO/2018/1/00004/U/00001] and the statutory research fund of the Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, 30-239, Kraków, Poland

    Magdalena Soboń & Łukasz Bratasz

Authors
  1. Magdalena Soboń
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  2. Łukasz Bratasz
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Contributions

LB: Conceptualization of the model, development of methodology, analysis and interpretation of the results, preparing manuscript. MS: Development and validation of the model, performing calculations, data analysis and interpretation, preparing manuscript.

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Correspondence to Magdalena Soboń.

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Soboń, M., Bratasz, Ł. A method for risk of fracture analysis in massive wooden cultural heritage objects due to dynamic environmental variations. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 80, 1201–1213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-022-01841-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-022-01841-3

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