Mitigating Harmful Effects of Climate Warming on Ceiling Paintings by Ceiling Insulation: An Evaluation Using Timed IR Imaging and Numeric Modelling

Alfons Huber,Günther Kain,Friedrich Idam,Alexander Petutschnigg,Markus Goldsteiner,Martin Mudri

doi:10.3390/su14010308

Abstract

Due to climate change, ceiling paintings in many historic buildings are subjected to increasingly high short-term temperature change, resulting in high thermal tension caused by the construction assembly. This article focuses on the combined use of timed IR imaging and numeric modelling to evaluate insulation measures on the upper side of a ceiling to reduce thermal tensions in the painting layers, overheating in summer as well as cooling down in winter. As a model room, the southern splendour stair hall in the Burgtheater Vienna was chosen. Famous ceiling paintings created from 1886 to 1888 by Gustav Klimt and his brother Ernst Klimt can be found on this ceiling. The results show that timed IR imaging is an adequate tool to study the transient thermal behaviour of ceiling paintings which are not accessible to standard sensor measurements. Moreover, it could be shown that the presented measurement technique is well suited to validate a numeric model. The latter was applied to evaluate the potential insulation on the top of the ceiling. It was shown that cooling loads and energy loss in the room underneath can be reduced and most importantly the thermal stress in painting layers is reduced. The findings are relevant as, due to global warming, the current situation in many buildings is worsening. Considering the great intangible cultural value of many ceiling paintings, the application of the presented evaluation strategy for building physical boundaries on a ceiling with paintings seems to be appropriate.

Highlights

Introduction iationsThe average temperature in the city centre of Vienna has risen by more than 2 ◦ C within the last 30 years and is expected to rise even more until the end of this century [1,2]
Due to climate change, ceiling paintings in many historic buildings are subjected to increasingly high short-term temperature change, resulting in high thermal tension caused by the construction assembly
The results show that timed IR imaging is an adequate tool to study the transient thermal behaviour of ceiling paintings which are not accessible to standard sensor measurements

Summary

Introduction

Introduction iationsThe average temperature in the city centre of Vienna has risen by more than 2 ◦ C within the last 30 years and is expected to rise even more until the end of this century [1,2]. An expert interview amongst cultural heritage experts has shown that mitigation of climate change requires measures in the cultural built heritage sector, which is a complex multivariate task [3]. They agree on the fact that cultural heritage has to be adapted in order to mitigate harmful effects of climate change on the building heritage [4] and to ensure visitor comfort [5]. Rising temperatures display a risk for the cultural heritage because of both thermal stress in construction elements and inappropriate alterations to the historic construction when introducing engineering solutions [6]. A compromise between visitor comfort and preservation of Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

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Conclusion