Abstract:

Longmen Grottoes is one of key cultural relic units under the state-level protection, which were carved in the carbonate rocks, and Fengxian Temple is one of the representative works of Longmen Grottoes. Because of the long-term impact of natural environment and human activities, Fengxian Temple has generated a variety of serious geological diseases, including seepage which can induced other diseases and had been threaten the integrity of the rock and the sculpture for a very long time. According to continuous observation, the seepage of Fengxian Temple has increased year by year. So it is very important to control the seepage. Detecting the parts of water seepage and seepage sources accurately is the base of designing the later period controlling programs of water disaster. In this paper, the seepage of Fengxian Temple had been detected under different conditions by means of infrared thermal imaging. And the results show that using thermal imaging devices can detect the seepage of the cliff rock site accurately and effectively, and what's more, the source of water seepage, the distribution and activity patterns of the seepage can be determined too. Compared with previous human observation, infrared thermal imaging has obvious advantages. Also, this technology can be used in probing the seepage of other caves in Longmen Grottoes.

Key words: seepage, infrared thermal imaging, Fengxian Temple, climatic condition