IR Thermography for Non-Destructive Monitoring of Moisture in Cultural Heritage

One of the main sources of damage to historical buildings is the presence of humidity. It is fundamental to develop a diagnosis protocol to identify the presence of water, evaluate the damage in a building (the whole structure, part of it or individual materials), assess its vulnerability and, finally, carry out a restoration plan. IR thermography is a sustainable method to guarantee structure analysis and preservation. Here, an application is presented, permitting us to identify the wet and dry areas and transition zone related to evaporation on the surface of the investigated materials. Thanks to temperature maps, it is possible to observe saturated regions, qualitatively at first and then quantitatively, processing the images by plotting reference lines/points and correlating surface temperatures with moisture.