Shock and vibration response of museum objects during transportation

Abstract

Museum objects are frequently transported by road and air when toured internationally or when moved between storage facilities which exposes them to a range of vibration and shock inputs. Many of these vulnerable objects have incipient damage such as cracks, loose joints, partial delamination or failing repairs which can be exacerbated in transit. It is the conservator's responsibility to select which objects are safe to travel, largely based on experience and professional judgement. A joint research programme between the University of Southampton and the British Museum aims to develop a scientific framework to aid and inform such judgements. A central research question, and the focus of this paper, is which methods of transport are potentially most damaging?

Vibration measurements were acquired during transit by car, train, ferry and commercial airliner. A moving average kurtosis is used to identify near-Gaussian and non-Gaussian segments in a time signal. Acceleration shock response spectra (SRS) are presented for a number of impulsive events, and corresponding vibration response spectra (VRS) shown for more normally distributed random inputs. Laboratory based vibration testing was carried out on a museum artefact packed in bespoke foam packaging inside a standard wooden transport crate. The modal response, combined with SRS and VRS, enabled the response of the object and the suitability of the packaging in reducing the response to different real-life stimuli to be assessed. Actual measurements on the artefact in transit also enabled the accuracy of SRS and VRS in predicting peak and RMS acceleration levels to be quantified.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Thomas W.J. Hutchin: orcid.org/0000-0003-4836-1406

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