Long Term Prediction of Marble Erosion for the Conservation of the Statue of David of Michelangelo

This article presents a study of the decay of a marble surface generated by solid particle impingement, in order to estimate the impact of a hypothetical harmful effect of the new hvac system, currently at the designing stage, for the protection of the statue of David by Michelangelo. The system is composed of a curtain of air projected vertically from the floor, separating the statue environment from that occupied by visitors to obtain a low concentration of pollutants near the marble surfaces. A very conservative simulation, with high air velocity and high particle concentration was performed using a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) code, in order to estimate the effect of long term exposure to the aggressive phenomenon.