Effects of Air Pollution on Materials and Cultural Heritage: ICP Materials Celebrates 25 Years of Research

Abstract

An overview is given of all results from the International Co-operative Programme on Effects on Materials including Historic and Cultural Monuments (ICP Materials), which was launched in 1985. Since then, about twenty different materials have been exposed repeatedly in a network of test sites consisting of more than twenty sites with an extensive environmental characterisation and more than sixty official reports have been issued. Recent results on trends in corrosion, soiling, and pollution show that corrosion of carbon steel, zinc, and limestone is today substantially lower than 25 years ago, but while corrosion of carbon steel has decreased until today, corrosion of zinc and limestone has remained more or less constant since the turn of the century. Unique data are given on measured HNO3concentrations from 2002-2003, 2005-2006, and 2008-2009, and the relative average decrease was about the same from 2002-2003 to 2005-2006 as it was from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009.

On the role of hydrophobic Si-based protective coatings in limiting mortar deterioration

“…Nowadays, the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage are an important issue difficult to be completely solved, especially in the case of historical buildings and monuments, which are seriously affected by environmental conditions and atmospheric pollution (Doehne and Price 2010;Ghedini et al 2011;Tidblad et al 2012).…”

Atmospheric corrosion models

“…Přesnost jednotlivých modelů predikce se významně liší v závislosti na metodice odvození predikčního modelu/rovnice a environmentálních parametrech zahrnutých do modelu. V rámci mezinárodních programů byly odvozeny rovnice pro výpočet roční a/nebo dlouhodobých korozních úbytků kovů [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Impacts of air pollution and climate on materials in Athens, Greece

“…Climatic parameters and air pollutants are of major significance in the deterioration of many materials used in buildings and cultural monuments (Ferm et al, , 2006Varotsos et al, 2009;Tzanis et al, 2009aTzanis et al, , 2011Tidblad et al, 2012). These pollutants are mainly emitted by industrial and agricultural activities as well as by the transport sector and, beyond their effects on human health and ecosystems, they contribute to the deterioration of cultural monuments both on the local scale and over long distances (Köhler et al, 2001;Ondov et al, 2006;Ebel et al, 2007;Tzanis et al, 2009b;Jacovides et al, 1994;Varotsos et al, , 2012Varotsos et al, , 2014Chattopadhyay et al, 2012;Krapivin and Shutko, 2012;Merlaud et al, 2012;Cracknell and Varotsos, 1994, 1995Xue et al, 2014;Monks et al, 2015;Efstathiou and Varotsos, 2010.…”