3rd edition | Lecture 04
Acoustic emissions techniques applied to historical vehicle engines by Laura Brambilla
April 24, 2025 | h 3 pm (CEST)
For the 3rd edition of the Current Topics in Heritage Science lecture series, organized by the emerging professionals of the E-RIHS HS Academy, the fourth lecture will be delivered on April 24th, 2025, at 3 pm (CEST), by Laura Brambilla.
The lecture “Acoustic emissions techniques applied to historical vehicle engines” will provide the attendees with an introduction on acoustic emissions techniques applied to heritage science.
Acoustic emission is a non-invasive, non-destructive technique, belonging to the NDT class (non-destructive testing), that is used in industry since the 1950s and applied also to the field of cultural heritage since the mid-1990s. It is based on the principle of elastic waves propagation in a material when a sudden release of energy inside the material itself occurs. This release of energy may happen due to a wide range of events taking place inside a solid material, such as the formation of a crack, corrosion phenomena, friction between two surfaces… The energy waves generated by the event travel inside the material and can be captured by piezoelectric sensors placed on the surface of the object. Acoustic emission allows then the detection and monitoring of a series of phenomena. In the field of cultural heritage, it is mainly applied to monitoring of cracks inside different types of objects (wooden objects, metal objects, enamels, built heritage, sculptures, paintings ….) due to environmental conditions changes and to integrated pest management, allowing to detect the activities of insects inside wood.
In the field of automotive industry, acoustic emission is used to monitor the performances of newly produced engines. In the ACUME_HV project (Acoustic Emission Monitoring of Historical Vehicles) we have applied Acoustic Emission to historical vehicles’ engines in order to perform a diagnosis of the state of conservation of the mechanical parts of the engines, due to wear, friction or corrosion, before their reactivation. During the talk you will learn about the Acoustic Emission techniques and their application to the diagnostic and monitoring of historical engines.
Laura Brambilla head of studies and research of HE-Arc CR, got her PhD in chemical sciences from the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. She joined the Ra&D team of Haute Ecole Arc conservation-restoration in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in April 2013 and she became professor in 2017. She has been leading several research projects: CANS (Conservation of cAns in collectioNS), an interdisciplinary research funded by SNSF dedicated to the conservation of food cans in museums and collections; ACUME_HV project, using Acoustic Emission methods for monitoring historical vehicles; FLUIDIS and LIQUOR projects, dedicated to natural history collections in fluid. She is currently project leader of the CORINT project, a SNSF Sinergia research dedicated to the investigation of iron artifacts in opaque porous media using multimodal imaging techniques (neutrons and X-rays).
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To discover the full programme of the 3rd edition check here
EDITORIAL TEAM OF THE 3RD EDITION
Emma Paolin, PhD student in the Heritage Science Laboratory Ljubljana at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Slovenia – ORCID
María Teresa Molina Delgado, Juan de la Cierva Research Fellowship at the Institute of Geosciences, Spanish National Research Council (IGEO-CSIC) – ORCID
Diego Quintero Balbas, Fixed-term Researcher in the Heritage Science Group at the Italian National Institute of Optics, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-INO) – ORCID
Tjaša Rijavec, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Heritage Science Laboratory Ljubljana and and Teaching Assistant at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Slovenia– ORCID
Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo, Migelien Gerritzen Fellowship at the Rijksmuseum – ORCID
Antonina Chaban, Fixed-term Research Technologist in the Heritage Science Group at the Italian National Institute of Optics, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-INO) – ORCID
