Name Pedro Rocha MRes Student Email pedro.rocha.16@ucl.ac.uk | ![]() |
Area of Research / Academic Interests
Pedro graduated in 2015 at the University of Porto with a Master in civil engineering - Building Construction. He is now in a project on historic tapestries.
Historic tapestries are complex artworks given its unique woven structure composed of different materials. These valuable artworks are affected by ageing and deterioration causing loss of material within a tapestry structure.
His project aims to understand how exposure to indoor environmental conditions results in the structural deterioration and loss of material in tapestries. The influence of moisture and temperature on stress and strain distribution in hanging tapestries is being studied to inform the best conservation techniques to preserve them. This is a collaborative project between EPICentre, Historical Royal Palaces and IBM that focus on the historical tapestry collection at Hampton Court Palace. In situ tri-axial strain monitoring as well as experimental laboratory work is informing advanced computational modelling techniques to model strain in historic tapestries.
Keywords / tags
Tapestries, heritage science