THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON CULTURAL HERITAGE BUILDINGS
During the third year of my bachelor's degree, I participated in a European Project Semester at Oslo Metropolitan University. For my bachelor thesis, I chose to work on the impact of climate change on cultural heritage buildings.
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This bachelor thesis is the result of an interdisciplinary group project. The project is part of Hyperion, a Horizon 2020 research and investigation program funded by the European Union for the period 2019-2022 under the Grant Agreement 821054.
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Our tasks included research about the causes and effects of climate change, in situ inspections, analysing samples, using hygrothermal simulation software and analysing the results.
PROJECT SUMMARY
This project investigates the hygrothermal performance of two timber historic buildings in Tønsberg, a city located in Norway, considering different climate scenarios. These constructions are mainly damaged by biological degradation of the wooden building parts, so the study focuses on the parameters related to mould risk. The main goal of this research is to use these two case studies as a small scale to predict the future of the deterioration of the construction materials. This prediction will be used to prevent the further deterioration of cultural heritage buildings.
Case study 1: Fadum Storehouse
Case study 1: WUFI model
RESULTS
The simulations of different future scenarios show us that the mould index will increase severely. An increase in relative humidity is also noticed and will cause Norway to be wetter during the year. The buildings themselves are badly isolated. There are no major differences between the outer and inner conditions in terms of air temperature and relative humidity.
Another factor is if the components are under the direct influence of the outer conditions or if they are protected from some influences. Due to the wider range of moisture content in the components, the shrinkage and swelling caused by the fluctuations of the moisture content will occur more heavily. The fluctuations are mainly caused by solar radiation, rain and air temperature. As a result of this, the existing cracks will expand and new cracks can arise. In addition to that, the more moisture there is in the building components, the more fungi and green algae will grow. Discolouring is mainly caused by solar radiation.
Regarding the differences between the future climate files and the results of the simulations, it can be concluded that large changes in climate conditions have an enormous impact on building materials.
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Case study 1: current climate
Case study 1: future climate