NSERC Alliance: Heritage Engineering for Adaptive Transitions (HEAT)

The NSERC Alliance: Heritage Engineering for Adaptive Transitions (HEAT) research project aims to understand the structural and environmental performance of materials and assemblies in historic buildings in response to climatic changes and extreme loading, and to leverage that information to support evidence-based decision-making in conservation work in Canada. 

The changing climate is expected to accelerate deterioration patterns in existing buildings over the coming years. Understanding the mechanical and environmental properties of materials in historic buildings will help to quantify the expected acceleration of deterioration and to mitigate the damage by supporting conservation efforts with evidence-based data.

The research will be conducted in close collaboration with a team of industry partners, with the objective of refining the research plan to fit the critical issues of the current conservation industry in Canada. The results will inform findings on best practices in experimental testing of historic structures, offering industry partners improved solutions for characterizing the properties of existing structures.

We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Nous remercions le Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada (CRSNG) de son soutien.