The high hygroscopicity and heterogeneity of parchment make it particularly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. The proper housing of a historical parchment, including mounting should mitigate the impact of the changes on the object. However, finding an appropriate mounting method requires detailed knowledge of the mechanical response of a parchment on the combined influence from environmental changes and forces introduced by the mounting. In this paper we present the capabilities of 3D digital image correlation (3D DIC) method implemented for full-field, spatio-temporal monitoring of displacements and strains in parchment exposed to environmental changes. We combine the measurement concept with the particular, critical task of evaluating the effectiveness of stabilising a single sheet of parchment mounted using elastic polyester strips. 3D DIC is implemented to record in non-invasive and non-contact way the full-field response of parchment mock-ups to fluctuations of the relative humidity (RH) without interfering with the climatic chamber processes. We measure and compare the impact of fluctuating RH on unmounted and mounted parchment samples, through the full-field 3D measurements of dimensional changes at selected humidity levels, and through the local and global analysis of the samples’ response (displacement/strains) in time. We had proven in quantitative and detailed way that the applied mount fully fulfils its task, namely reduce significantly the out-of-plane displacements and strains occurring in the parchment during RH changes in the range from 39 to 80%. Our study also demonstrates the possibilities of using 3D DIC for the efficient support of conservation scientists in the development of storage, mounting, and treatment protocols for historical parchment.

A modified 3D colour digital image correlation method (3D cDIC) is proposed for efficient displacement measurements of colour objects with natural texture. The method is using a separate analysis of correlation coefficient (sigma) value in the RGB channels of CCD cameras by utilising local information from the channel with the minimum sigma. In this way, merged U, V and W displacement maps are generated based on the local correlation quality. As the proposed method applies to colour filter array cameras, the images in RGB channels have to undergo a demosaicking procedure which directly influences the accuracy of displacement measurements. In the paper, the best performing demosaicking methods are selected. The metrological analysis of their influence on the results of canvas paintings investigations obtained by unmodified and modified 3D cDIC processing is presented.