Damage to a monumental organ due to wood deformation caused by church heating

In a PhD study on the heating of monumental churches one of the problems, which was encountered, was the damage to wooden interior parts due to the changing of the indoor climate. Particularly warm air heating frequently leads to sudden changes in relative humidity, which turned out to be dramatically hard for monumental organs during wintertime. The warm air inlet conditions and their result on the airflow and air conditions were examined experimentally and by CFD-simulation. These results provided boundary temperature and humidity conditions, to which the monumental organ was exposed. In an experimental study the response of wooden parts to changing indoor conditions was tested. In a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) test setup the moisture content of samples was measured as a function of time and place. These moisture content changes were related to the free mechanical deformation of samples. Together with the measurement of typical material properties of wood, a two-dimensional model was developed in FlexPDE: a finite element program to solve partial differential equations simultaneously.