In archaeological excavations, unearthed artifacts such as bricks, pottery, and murals often face a thorny problem—weathering and pulverization. Bricks in particular, after being buried underground for hundreds or even thousands of years and subjected to salt crystallization, wet-dry cycles, freeze-thaw cycles, and other factors, become extremely fragile in structure—crumbling at the touch—posing great challenges to artifact extraction, transport, and subsequent research.

To improve their strength without damaging the original appearance of the artifacts, cultural heritage conservators have gradually introduced polymer adhesives (e.g., acrylic resins, silicone-modified materials, etc.) for consolidation by infiltration. These adhesives can penetrate into the pores of the brick, re-"bind" loose particles together through physical filling and chemical crosslinking, thereby enhancing the mechanical properties and durability of the bricks.

But here comes the question: How effective is the consolidation?
Can polymer adhesives truly "rescue" a weathered brick? How much do they improve the brick's compressive and tensile strength? Do they cause side effects such as increased brittleness or pore clogging? These questions cannot be answered by intuition; they require precise mechanical test data.

GoGo Instruments, in collaboration with China University of Mining and Technology and Xuzhou Museum, took weathered bricks excavated from Han Dynasty tombs as the research subject, and used GoGo Instruments' SFH5000-1200 in-situ tensile stage to carry out precise in-situ mechanical testing on the consolidation effect of nanocellulose polymer adhesives.

• Testing Process

In this test, the GoGo Instruments in‑situ tensile stage successfully obtained complete mechanical performance data of the Han Dynasty bricks before and after consolidation—from compressive strength and tensile strength to the fracture behavior reflected by force‑displacement curves. All indicators clearly show that the nanocellulose adhesive can effectively fill pores and bridge microcracks, significantly improving the mechanical properties of the weathered bricks, without causing side effects such as excessive brittleness or severe pore clogging.

This joint study demonstrates that in‑situ mechanical testing technology can accurately quantify the consolidation effect without damaging the original samples or requiring the preparation of standard test blocks, providing an efficient and reliable scientific tool for screening conservation solutions for fragile cultural relics. In the future, GoGo Instruments will continue to deepen its collaboration with China University of Mining and Technology and Xuzhou Museum, so that more artifacts that have lain dormant for thousands of years can be revitalized under the protection of precise data.