optimizing the implementation and safety of chemical cleaning of stone facades
Welcome to Sophie Dolezon-Verley for a thesis on optimizing the implementation and safety of chemical cleaning of stone facades.
In March 2024, the GEAIME Group welcomed a new doctoral student, Sophie Dolezon-Verley. Under a CIFRE contract with the engineering firm ECMH (Etudes pour la Conservation des Monuments Historiques), her doctoral topic will focus on optimizing the implementation and safety of chemical cleaning of stone facades. Indeed, due to the presence of toxic elements in soiling, and more particularly lead in particulate form, chemical methods are enjoying a new boom, limiting the dispersion of particles in the air, thus protecting both the operator and the environment. However, those working in the field are wondering about the effects of these treatments on monuments over the short and long term. The main objectives of his thesis project will therefore be, firstly, to gain a more precise understanding of the mechanisms involved in the application of a chemical cleaner to a soiled façade, and secondly, to optimize this cleaning process so as to have non-deleterious effects on the stone.
De-leading and cleaning tests at Saint-Eustache church, Paris, 2020 ©ECMH