WP5 – CONVENTIONAL & INNOVATIVE MECHANICAL TESTS

WP5 is aimed at optimizing NI approaches to probe both the surface and subsurface mechanical properties (e.g.: mechanical ones). The state of the art of NI approaches for assessing the mechanical properties of Cultural Heritage materials are limited, so through the activities of WP5 we will experiment and evaluate new tools already accepted in other fields, to propose new adaptable solutions for plastics and polymer conservation in heritage science. 

Both traditional and consolidated methods for testing the mechanical properties will support and validate the NI and innovative approaches. 
We selected the following methods: 

• TGA and DSC will be used to evaluate thermal properties and structural changes through isothermal or static thermogravimetry.
• TGA coupled with GC-MS will be exploited, using a customized interface system that will allow to storing of the fractions of the gases evolved from the TGA and analysis of them separately by GC-MS.
• dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA) to assess the effects of ageing/degradation/restoration on bulk mechanical properties.
• laser micro-profilometry and Optical Coherent Tomography (OCT) to monitor the surface morphology, to measure the thickness of surface coatings or deposits, and their variations due to degradation phenomena or specific restoration interventions, first on reference materials and then on artworksPortable NMR probes with modulable responsive depth volumes will enable to investigate the structural properties of plastics references and objects at varying depths from the surface.

Multimodal micro-Brillouin-Raman (BRaMS) will be applied to evaluate mechanochemical changes due to ageing or restoration interventions.