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Risk of climate-induced damage in historic textiles

Abstract

of climate-induced damage in historic textiles', Strain, ABSTRACT: Eleven wool and silk historic textiles and two modern artist's canvases were examined to determine their water-vapour adsorption, moisture dimensional response and tensile behaviour. All the textiles showed a similar general pattern of moisture response. A rise in ambient relative humidity (RH) from dry conditions produced expansion of a textile until a certain critical RH level after which a contraction occurred to a greater or lesser degree depending on the yarn crimp and the weave geometry. The largest expansion recorded between the dry state and 80% RH was 1.2 and 0.9% for wool and silk textiles, respectively.