Robust monitoring and vibration mitigation for easel paintings
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
Robust monitoring and vibration mitigation for easel paintings
The impact of exposure of canvas easel paintings to vibration is cumulative and changes may not be visible until the point of catastrophic failure is reached. It is of increasing concern as heritage institutions seek to use their collections in new ways to engage audiences and raise income, yet curators and conservators have little reliable research from which to determine safe limits. Real-time monitoring systems fixed to a building structure are often used, which trigger alerts if vibration breaches a threshold level, but choice of the threshold is generally not linked to the objects being exposed.
This project will address these limitations by combining engineering methods with expertise from conservation and curatorial practice to develop an alternative approach. This requires development of a computer model to predict the dynamic response of individual paintings to a vibration input that takes into account how the paintings are hung and the painting-wall interaction, together with a mathematical process to infer the vibration experienced at every point on a wall using a limited number of physical sensors and a 'virtual sensor' network. The aim is to create from this a practical real-time monitoring and alert system based on the response of individual paintings themselves. The framework can also help develop mitigation strategies for individual paintings.
Although every painting is unique, walls vary etc, the approach developed with NG will accommodate such variability to ensure wide applicability: the underlying programs will be shared allowing other heritage institutions to build their own systems
The impact of exposure of canvas easel paintings to vibration is cumulative and changes may not be visible until the point of catastrophic failure is reached. It is of increasing concern as heritage institutions seek to use their collections in new ways to engage audiences and raise income, yet curators and conservators have little reliable research from which to determine safe limits. Real-time monitoring systems fixed to a building structure are often used, which trigger alerts if vibration breaches a threshold level, but choice of the threshold is generally not linked to the objects being exposed.
This project will address these limitations by combining engineering methods with expertise from conservation and curatorial practice to develop an alternative approach. This requires development of a computer model to predict the dynamic response of individual paintings to a vibration input that takes into account how the paintings are hung and the painting-wall interaction, together with a mathematical process to infer the vibration experienced at every point on a wall using a limited number of physical sensors and a 'virtual sensor' network. The aim is to create from this a practical real-time monitoring and alert system based on the response of individual paintings themselves. The framework can also help develop mitigation strategies for individual paintings.
Although every painting is unique, walls vary etc, the approach developed with NG will accommodate such variability to ensure wide applicability: the underlying programs will be shared allowing other heritage institutions to build their own systems
