2024-07-15 10:17:24
(ANSA) – CAGLIARI, JULY 15 – Saving the nuraghi from rain and frost, the main enemies of these archaeological monuments of Sardinia that date back almost four thousand years. The danger is also the temperature changes: the water, freezing, expands and causes cracks in the structure of the stone. But also the salts, when the water evaporates, create dangerous pressures. This is what emerges from a mathematical model developed by Sardinian researchers.
The risks but also a possible remedy for these damages have been illustrated in a study by Sardinian researchers published in the international journal Case Studies in Construction Materials. A “fuzzy” model (a procedure that uses variables not simply as numbers but with decisions that overlap without rigid classifications) has been created to monitor and protect nuraghi or archaeological sites from weather-related degradation.
The test was carried out at the Genna Maria site, in Villanovaforru, about sixty kilometers from Cagliari.
“Thanks to the interaction – explain the authors of the discovery – between different variables (properties of the materials in place and environmental conditions: temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, etc.), we were able to estimate the periods in which the structure is most exposed to degradation.
The months of greatest vulnerability were found to be January, February and December. We compared the model predictions with the phenomena observed on site and with the results of accelerated aging tests in the laboratory, confirming the reliability of the model”.
But the “save nuraghi” system can be applied everywhere, perhaps even on the giants of Mont’e Prama, or on other archaeological sites. The protagonists of the research are Marta Cappai (fixed-term researcher), Giorgio Pia (associate professor in Materials Science and Technology in the Department of Mechanical, Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Cagliari), Ulrico Sanna (retired full professor). Data management in the future could be entrusted to artificial intelligence.
(ANSA).
2024-07-15 10:17:24