Advances in Preservation Environment for Protection of Cultural Heritage Artefacts

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Techniques, Instruments, and Modeling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2023) | Viewed by 7254

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
International Society of the Built Environment (ISBE), Milton Keynes MK7 8HQ, United Kingdom School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: environmental control, indoor air quality, materials, heritage preservation
School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: environmental control, ventilation, relics preservation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cultural heritages are non-renewable resources with significant historical, artistic and scientific value. For collections that are preserved in closed cabins or showcases in museums, air-quality-related risks are the primary causes of damage to artefacts. Appropriate indoor air quality (IAQ), temperature, relative humidity (RH) and light conditions are very important for the preventive protection and preservation of artefacts in indoor displays. Unearthed, immovable heritage sites are preserved in situ where they were unearthed in order to maintain their original appearance. Their surrounding environment is usually a soil–air coupling complex, and many heritage sites are facing serious challenges from climate change, environmental pollution, human activities and salt weathering. The primary objectives of this Special Issue are to raise awareness of the urgent tasks that need to be carried out for cultural heritage conservation, provide a platform to share innovative interdisciplinary research and summarize the state of the art in cultural heritage preventive protection. Original and review research papers on the following topics are welcomed but not limited to:

(1) The environmental deterioration mechanism of cultural heritage;

(2) Advances in the techniques for the characterization of deterioration;

(3) Advanced environmental control strategies for cultural heritage;

(4) Environmental safety in cultural heritage conservation.

Prof. Dr. Chuck Wah Francis Yu
Dr. Xilian Luo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • environmental control
  • air pollution
  • preservation environment
  • aerosol
  • air purification
  • weathering

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5757 KiB  
Article
Study of the Freeze–Thaw Weathering’s Influence on Thermal Properties of Stone Artifacts
by Jia’nan Zhang, Xue Yang, Beichen Chen, Xiangyu Wang, Gangbo Hu, Ning Tao and Jiangang Sun
Atmosphere 2023, 14(4), 666; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14040666 - 31 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1989
Abstract
A study of the weathering process of three types of stones, sandstone, marble, and granite, which are commonly found in artifacts worldwide, is presented. Freeze–thaw cycles are used to accelerate changes in the stone’s physical properties, such as the surface morphology, mass, and [...] Read more.
A study of the weathering process of three types of stones, sandstone, marble, and granite, which are commonly found in artifacts worldwide, is presented. Freeze–thaw cycles are used to accelerate changes in the stone’s physical properties, such as the surface morphology, mass, and porosity. Pulsed infrared thermography, as an in situ non-destructive testing method, is adopted to measure the stone’s thermal properties, such as the diffusivity, effusivity, and conductivity. These thermal parameters influence the natural weathering process, and in turn can change with the decay of the stone materials. Preliminary experimental results show that all three types of stone experience a process of mass loss and porosity increase after the freeze–thaw cycles, and their thermal properties change differently depending on their types. Since the thermal effusivity can be obtained non-destructively by reflectance thermography, we propose for the first time the use of thermal effusivity to characterize the influence of the weathering process and as an indicator of the aging degree of stone artifacts. Full article
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20 pages, 9581 KiB  
Article
Study on Barriers of Water Salt Transfers in Earthen Sites by Plastic-Coated Sand
by Wen Xu, Bin Chang, Yunwei Zhang, Zhaolin Gu, Chuck Wah Yu and Xilian Luo
Atmosphere 2023, 14(2), 236; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14020236 - 25 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1461
Abstract
Under the action of unidirectional water migration, museum soil sites generally encounter erosion through dry cracking, salt enrichment, etc. In this paper, the earthen site of the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum of the First Emperor of Qin was used as the research object, [...] Read more.
Under the action of unidirectional water migration, museum soil sites generally encounter erosion through dry cracking, salt enrichment, etc. In this paper, the earthen site of the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum of the First Emperor of Qin was used as the research object, and the “hydrophobic” property of coated sand was proposed to prevent water migration and salt accumulation. Through the soil column experiment of water salt migration and the HYDRUS software numerical simulation, the water salt migration law of the soil in the heritage site under different conditions and the characteristics of water and salt resistance of plastic-coated sand were studied. The results showed that the salt damage on the earthen ruins was mainly due to the horizontal and vertical migration of water and salt in soil. After embedding the coated sand layer into the soil environment under the earthen site, the vertical and horizontal migration of water and salt in the soil can be completely prevented due to precipitation and groundwater. The coated sand protection technology and method proposed in this paper use materials similar to those of the earthen, and provide a feasible method for the protection of cultural relics in our country. Full article
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13 pages, 2562 KiB  
Article
Temperature and Moisture Gradients Drive the Shifts of the Bacterial Microbiomes in 1000-Year-Old Mausoleums
by Xin Li, Xiao’ai Zhou, Chen Wu, Evangelos Petropoulos, Yongjie Yu and Youzhi Feng
Atmosphere 2023, 14(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14010014 - 22 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3001
Abstract
Cultural relics conservation and prevention from bacterial deterioration are critical for our historical heritage. Thus far, the variations of the ecophysiological features of deteriorating bacterial communities along gradients of temperature and moisture remain unclear. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate [...] Read more.
Cultural relics conservation and prevention from bacterial deterioration are critical for our historical heritage. Thus far, the variations of the ecophysiological features of deteriorating bacterial communities along gradients of temperature and moisture remain unclear. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate the changing pattern of bacterial communities on bricks at different positions along two such gradients in the Two Mausoleums of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which have more than 1000 years of history. We found that the tombs were inhabited by a phylogenetically and functionally diverse bacterial microbiomes. Herein, Proteobacteria (34.5%), Cyanobacteria (31.3%), Bacteroidetes (7.8%) and Actinobacteria (7.4%), as well as ‘Amino Acid Metabolism (11.2%)’ and ‘Carbohydrate Metabolism (10.5%)’ accounted for the majorities of their compositional and functional profiles related to biodeterioration. Non-metric scaling in combination with PERMANOVA tests indicated that shifts in bacterial community compositions were governed by temperature, followed by moisture. In addition, we found that tourism-related anthropogenic activities could have played non-negligible roles in community assembly, especially in the areas that account as attractions (i.e., back room of the Qinling Mausoleum). Collectively, this study advances the knowledge regarding the deteriorating microbiomes of cultural monuments, which is essential for the conservation of historical cultural relics. Full article
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