Indoor microclimatic study for Cultural Heritage protection and preventive conservation in the Palatina Library

Abstract

Abstract We suggest a method to identify the suitability of a chosen indoor environment for paper material conservation in historical libraries. Our approach is based on two steps: numerical simulation for solving the air velocity, moisture and temperature fields, and then post-processing indexes evaluation to assess how the indoor microclimatic conditions can be favourable or not to the growth and development of microorganisms responsible for paper deterioration. A real case study was analysed in two different conditions: one the present situation and the other proposed by the authors with a HVAC system assuring controlled air temperature and RH levels. Numerical models, validated by experimental data published in previous works, were used to carry out microclimatic results. Starting from these results, some indexes suggested by the scientific literature were computed to check the suitability of the indoor environment for preserving a library heritage. Boolean parameters were also deduced from the combination of microclimatic factors favouring the growth of microorganisms responsible for paper material deterioration. Our research can provide a methodological approach that predictively allows one to know when, where and how the processes responsible for indoor microorganism activity can find the microclimatic conditions for their kick-off and triggering, and then their areas of potential growth. The proposed method highlights the main causes of the deterioration processes connected to building thermo-physics. Simulation results turned out to be a fundamental approach to identify the risky zones and potential areas of triggering deterioration processes of all the materials present.