Investigation on moisture and salt transport in heterogeneous porous media of Relics-Soil in archaeology museum

The unearthed relics in archaeology museum are usually being presented to the public as still partly connected to their primitive environment. Migration of moisture may cause the carbonate from the soil being deposited on the relic's surface and some carbonates would react with the penetrating SO2 to form sulphates, which will change the relics' primitive form and material properties. In this research, experiments were carried out to clarify the migration mechanism of water and salt in a soil-relic-atmosphere coupling environment. The research results show that there existing a one-way transport of moisture from the soil-relics to the air even though the relative humidity approximates to 100%. Meanwhile, the effects of soil properties, air temperature, relative humidity and salt concentration on the transports of moisture and salt are identified.