The field of research of building forensics was founded in 2012 by Prof. Rapp. As a starting point, optical techniques from classical forensic science were transferred to questions of structural damage, further developed, adapted and refined for construction practice. Since then, numerous research projects have been carried out at the IBW on issues from various application areas, e.g. wood species identification, detection of invisible mould, past water damage, fluorescence of minerals, conservation, vehicle damage diagnosis and more.
The main methods of optical building forensics are absorption imaging analysis and fluorescence imaging analysis in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR). Materials with very similar properties can thus be distinguished non-destructively. This also includes changes due to aging or past water exposure, mould growth and contamination.
