Modelling the chemical and physical degradation of plastic objects in museum collections using a System Dynamics approach

博物馆收藏的许多著名的现代艺术和设计作品都是由塑料制成的。然而，尽管相对“年轻”，塑料物品可能是最脆弱的人工制品之一，有时在博物馆收购后几年内报告材料退化。塑料物体的降解是复杂的，涉及多个过程，例如物质通过材料的扩散以及对温度和光线等环境参数的化学反应。这些过程作为一个复杂系统在单个对象中相互作用的方式还没有得到很好的理解。这个项目，在伦敦大学学院的基础上，与泰特和设计保护合作，将解决这个问题。所提出的方法使用系统动力学，将多个退化过程建模为一个偏微分方程系统，然后可以求解和验证。因此，这项研究将开发一种新的材料降解建模方法，可应用于医学或国防等许多领域，并为遗产专业人员提供实用的解决方案，例如为控制博物馆存储环境提供指导。

Many famous works of modern art and design found in museum collections are made of plastics. However, despite being relatively "young", plastic objects can be among the most fragile artefacts, with material degradation sometimes reported within a few years of acquisition by a museum. Degradation of plastic objects is complex, involving multiple processes such as the diffusion of substances through the material and chemical responses to environmental parameters such as temperature and light. The way such processes interact as a complex system within a single object, is not well understood. This project, based at UCL and in partnership with Tate and Conservation by Design will address this problem. The proposed approach uses system dynamics and will model multiple degradation processes as a single system of partial differential equations, which can then be solved and validated. This research will thus both develop a new method of modelling material degradation that can be applied in many fields, such as medicine or defence, and provide practical solutions for heritage professionals, such as providing guidance on controlling museum storage environments.