Thermovision: applications in conservation field to detect hidden characteristics of building structures

Thermovision is applied in several fields of investigations and is a technique useful to control the range of temperatures emitted by different materials. In conservation thermovision is basely used to observe surfaces hidden by rendering or plaster. The information provided by thermographic tests can reveal the geometry of the masonry components and also the presence of defects such as discontinuities, layer detachments and voids. It can also give many details of timber structures covered by frescoes or painting. The authors propose some critical remarks of the main results obtained by different on-site applications of IR thermography.