Does anyone have experience of using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for analysis of historic mortars? I have facilities available to me but I am not sure if there is much potential for this in my field of research - I work with new and historic lime mortars and am interested in possibly using this technique to identify additives in the mix.
Thanks Steph!
I'm not sure how good it would be for mortars given their extreme variability. I think I'd have to put a serious amount of time and effort into building a model when there might be better ways to answer my questions using other techniques. I know it's been sucessfully used for earth mortars but I think even with these they require multiple models based on where they are working.
I'm still learning...
My suggestion would be to get a large library of samples and take readings from these. Once you have enough (say, different mixes) then you can create a database. Then, when you are out in the field assessing the mertars that are already there, by using PLS regression it should be able to identify where that mortar fits within your library.
Thanks Craig! I don't suppose you have a student that could populate the database for us?
Not right now, sadly. But perhaps soon - might make for a good dissertation topic! Probably talking in the summer, though...
Hi Katrin, I'm afriad we haven't made any more progress with this. The model building process that is required for this to work is a very time consuming task. We're unlikely to make progress with this any time soon unless we have a student you ahs time to input all the required info.
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