IRT in the investigation of buildings and historic structures

Abstract

Although, the efficiency of IRT (infrared thermography) as a NDT & E technique in the literature it is well documented, in the investigation of historic structures, where a restoration or conservation treatment can cause irreversible damage to the structure, it is considered to be of most importance. IRT is a non-destructive investigation technique that can be widely used due to the outstanding advantages that offers in a number of applications and specifically in the assessment of structural materials and techniques. In the present work, both IRT approaches, passive and active, were used, depending on the application, for the investigation of traditional-historical materials and structures. IRT was applied on restoration and traditional-historic materials and structures for the evaluation of conservation interventions (materials and techniques) concerning cleaning of architectural surfaces, restoration of masonries by repair mortars, as well as the disclosure of tesserae on plastered mosaic surfaces. For this reason, diagnostic studies on historical sites and structures took place. Wherever necessary, the emissivity values of the investigated materials were taken into account, after their determination in the laboratory on representative samples. Furthermore, in order to obtain useful information from the IRT surveys various properties (thermal, optical, physical) of the examined materials were taken into account. The outcome of this work provides strong evidence that IRT is an effective technique for the evaluation of historic buildings and sites.