Climate risk assessment in museums

To better predict the preservational qualities of indoor climates in museums, a new method is presented to assess risks to museum objects: the specific risk assessment method. The main difference from existing methods is that the object’s response time is used to convert the measured indoor climate into the climate as experienced by the object. Four typical, well-defined objects are used in the analysis. For these objects four degradation parameters are determined: biological degradation by means of mould growth, chemical degradation by means of the Lifetime Multiplier and mechanical degradation by means of strain in the construction of an object (usually caused by slower changes in relatively humidity (RH) over time) and also by looking at stresses between construction and decorative layers (usually caused by faster changes in RH). The outcome of this method of risk analysis is a 4-by-4 matrix (objects versus degradation principles) that contains colours (green for ‘safe’, orange for ‘damage possible’ and red for ‘damage likely’). The risk assessment method is applied to measurements arried out in various types of museum buildings in the Netherlands and Belgium, with a wide variety of climate systems. Differences in object risks in all these buildings are shown. It is concluded that the newly proposed risk assessment method is easy to use in the field. It also contains the newest insights in degradation research. In future, it may even be used instead of current climate guidelines such as ASHRAE guidelines.

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