News
- Flooding in Tewkesbury
- Environmental Monitoring System
- Laboratory Analysis
- A talk by Dr. D. D'Ayala at Building flood-resilient communities Conference
- Paper on WDR impact has been accepted
- Project Meeting
- European Course
Flooding in Tewkesbury (8.5.2012)
Due to the heavy rain events in April 2012, Parnassus case study area in Tewkesbury has been flooded. Some of the cultural heritage in this historic center is suffering the adverse effects of the flooding. Flooding in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire can be seen from the air, here. Nick Purchase, who lives in the Abbey Mill, one of the project's case study buildings, is talking about 2012 flooding in Tewkesbury.
Abbey Mill before and after the flood (May 2012)
Environmental Monitoring (8.5.2012)
Buildings selected in Task 2.2 underwent environmental and condition monitoring on a continuous basis and as Task 3.1, data acquisition took place. Tewkesbury Abbey Mill and 1 Mill Bank were selected to be the most suitable buildings for the first year of the project. The monitoring equipment included a horizontal rainfall gauge and wind-driven rain gauges to measure rain amounts, wind sensors to measure the wind speed and direction, wall surface temperature sensors, probes to measure temperature and relative humidity within the wall, inside and an outside air temperature and relative humidity sensors, a water level sensor to monitor water level in the adjacent water course and a pressure sensor to measure atmospheric pressure. At the beginning of the Summer, 2012, the monitoring system will be removed from the buildings in Tewkesbury and will be installed on Arlington Museum and Arlington Mansion in Devon and Blickling Hall in Norfolk for another one-year period of time.
Laboratory Analysis (8.5.2012)
Material selection experimental work to define the combined effect of wind-driven rain and flooding and freeze-thaw effect has been in progress. Project partners from Civil Engineering, University of Bristol and Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath came together to discuss potential materials on 21st January 2011.
A talk by Dr. D. D'Ayala at Building flood-resilient communities Conference (24.5.2012)
One day conference and exhibition in association with the EU FP7 SMARTeST Project on
14 June 2012 - BRE Watford
Dr. Dina D'Ayala will give a talk on "PARNASSUS: From vulnerability to resilience of historic buildings affected by flooding" within the scope of the PARNASSUS research project. Details of the conference can be found here.
Paper on WDR impact has been published(24.5.2012)
Wind-driven Rain (WDR) is a significant erosive factor and a moisture source for masonry. To fully understand the impact, burette-generated water drops and their behavior (splashing, spreading, bouncing, run-off) on different masonry materials have been assessed regarding their speed, drop size and impact angle, using a high-speed camera. Quantification of WDR related erosivity and water absorption by exposing them to continuous water drops is part of the testing. Material surface strength reduction after drop exposure have been investigated as well.
The paper on WDR drop impact has been accepted by the journal Building and Environment - Elsevier and can be reached online here.
PARNASSUS academic and industrial partners progress meeting took place at Winchester School of Art, on Friday the 16th March 2012. With the participation of the vast majority of the projects members, fruitful discussions followed the progress presentations of the members. Next project meeting is anticipated to be held in October 2012.
European Course on Global Change and Risk to Cultural Heritage (8.5.2012)
The course is promoted by the Council of Europe and the European University Centre for Cultural Heritage, in cooperation with University Cergy-Pontoise.
It will highlight the risks to cultural heritage from:
1 Climate change and Global change
2 Environmental change
3 Urban pressure
4 Energy constraints
5 Effect of tourism
The course will present the results of research from European and International projects and outline future perspectives on global change and risks to Cultural heritage. The importance of evidence based policy will also be explored in Paris, France, 10-14 September 2012.
