Towards Resilient Heritage: Quantifying Climate Change Impacts on Traditional Chinese Masonry Through Advanced Hygrothermal Modelling

Recently, Xiaolin Chen presented her PhD dissertation entitled “Towards Resilient Heritage: Quantifying Climate Change Impacts on Traditional Chinese Masonry Through Advanced Hygrothermal Modelling”. Building on her Bachelor in Architecture (Nanjing), Master in Historic Preservation (Philadelphia), and experience as conservation architect (Shanghai), she started a PhD at #GhentUniversity under supervision of Prof. Nathan Van Den Bossche (Faculty of Engineering and Architecture) and Prof. Piet Termonia (Faculty of Sciences & RMI).

In her research, she explored how climate change affects historic masonry constructions and how they can be better preserved. The work involved characterizing the specific hygric properties of materials and analysing the behaviour of complex traditional Chinese cavity wall systems to improve understanding of their preservation needs. In addition, the impacts of bias and uncertainty in climate models were carefully considered. By studying the interactions between different climates and materials by means of numerical models, this work contributes to more climate-sensitive and sustainable conservation strategies for heritage buildings.