Progress of laboratory weathering tests of stone artifacts

Stone artifacts can be seen as an important component of cultural heritage. A large portion of them is directly exposed to the natural environment, so their weathering process has long been a focus in academia. This paper summarizes the relevant experimental literature in the past ten years, analyzes and evaluates the experimental methods of artificial weathering of stone artifacts and the detection technology of their weathering effect. Artificial aging test of stone artificials refers to that researchers apply dry and wet cycling, salt crystallization, thermal stress and freeze-thaw weathering in laboratory to simulate outdoor environment, and use physical and chemical methods, such as infrared thermal wave imaging, rock medium ultrasound, nuclear magnetic resonance, and other technologies, to study the degradation mechanism, degree, and manifestation of stone artifacts. At the same time, by studying their texture structure, composition, porosity, thermal conductivity and other information, the weathering degree of the stone can be quantified. These works provide us with a theoretical foundation to understand the weathering mechanism of stone and help us protect stone artifacts in the future. It will help make the protection of cultural relics more scientific and effective, and provide strong support for the protection of precious cultural heritage.