The components of the project include:

Component One: Fundamental Research on Salt Damage

• Time-lapse visualization of salt damage under different climatic conditions.
• Study of potential crystallization inhibitors.
• Hygroscopic dilatation of salt-laden sandstone in response to climatic cycles.
• Extension of the ESEM for quantitative measurement of water vapor pressure, temperature, and relative humidity.
• Quantification of deliquescence behavior for sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, sodium nitrate, and mixtures.
• The calcium sulfate system: microscale behavior and chemical reconversion.
  

Component Two: Salt Reduction/Desalination

• Analytical issues: how to measure salt concentrations in porous substrates.
• Reproducible laboratory salination in test cubes.
• Physico-mechanical behavior of desalination poultices.
• Desalination efficiency of poultices, renderings, and rinsing.
• Artificial stone as a salt-accumulating and/or sacrificial rendering.
• Estimate of secondary damage, problem of salt deposition in adjacent zones.
• Salt and moisture transport mechanisms.
  

Component Three: Education and Dissemination

• Visualization of salt decay process under time-lapse conditions.
• Distribution and maintenance of salt research bibliography.
• SALTeXPERT Advanced Course and Workshop, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Training of conservators and scientists in methods of salt removal and analysis.
• Peer-reviewed publications.