Authors: Joanna Sobczyk Piotr Frączek Michał Obarzanowski Julio M del HoyoMeléndez Łukasz Bratasz
Publish Date: 2014/07/02
Volume: 48, Issue: 5, Pages: 981-994
Abstract
Consolidation treatments are commonly employed in museum conservation studios for treating biologically deteriorated wooden cultural heritage objects Impregnation using either a solvent/resin or a polymerizing system is an example of such an intervention which is often difficult to describe in terms of its behavior within the object’s structure A new simple method has been devised to evaluate the effectiveness of these impregnation treatments in terms of spatial distribution of consolidant solution A combination of digital radiography and imaging analysis has permitted to evaluate the degree of penetration of a consolidant and to determine its location within the artifact by studying the Xray images taken before during and after treatment The adequacy of polymer solutions or their effectiveness as wood consolidants is properties which are often difficult to investigate due to limited visual access to the interior of the object The proposed method provides an alternative way of studying these parameters through analysis of Xray attenuation recorded on two images taken before and after the conservation treatment The resulting image is then converted into a twodimensional map of consolidation agent within the object using a straightforward calibration procedureThe authors would like to acknowledge the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for providing financial funding for this study under Grant Number 519/NCOST/2009/0 within the framework of COST Action IE0601 entitled Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage WoodCultHer
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