Computational Simulation Prediction of Fungal Growth on Religious Building Materials

Religious building materials are often renovated with a high expenditure of time and money without investigating and considering the causes of either damages or deterioration. In many ways, religious buildings can only be maintained by changing their usage. This change of use may influence the interior climate enormously. To assess the effect on the risk of fungal mycelial growth on building parts or building materials, a predictive model has been developed recently, describing the hydrothermal behaviour of the spore. It allows for the first time to employ the changing surface temperatures and relative humidity for the computational prediction of fungal mycelial growth. The calculational assessment of fungal growth allows the handling of such problems which until now could not be solved with simple estimations or with reasonable metrological expense. The modified model generated predictions which agreed closely with experimental data on fungal mycelia growth on religious building materials, thereby supporting the assumptions on which the model was based.