Smart Archival Box: A Hybrid Active–Passive Microclimate Control System for Preventive Conservation of Archival and Museum Collections

Abstract

Museum and archive storage facilities worldwide face persistent difficulties in maintaining stable microclimatic conditions. This study presents a Smart Archival Box, a modular hardware–software system for preventive conservation, together with a model-based evaluation of its microclimate control. The numerical domain has a nominal volume of 0.125 m3 (0.5 m × 0.5 m × 0.5 m) and combines a 1 kg ArtSorb cassette, four TEC1-12706 thermoelectric modules, particulate/activated-carbon filtration, distributed monitoring and RFID-based access control. Temperature is regulated by a single proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller with ambient-load feedforward, back-calculation anti-windup, hot-side derating and a dew-point safety limiter. Three scenarios—hybrid (H), active (A) and passive (P)—were evaluated over 10,173 one-second intervals (10,174 records; 2.8258 h) while the prescribed ambient temperature rose from 16 to 32 °C, and ambient relative humidity fell from 67% to 27%. H and A remained within the broader 16–20 °C preservation band for 100% of the run and within the tighter 17.5–18.5 °C control band for 79.7% and 80.5%, respectively, finishing at 18.53 °C and 18.56 °C. P reached 21.20 °C and remained within the tighter band for 47.7% of the run. Calculated electrical consumption was 0.05177 kWh for H, 0.05156 kWh for A and 0.00565 kWh for P. Relative humidity remained within 45–55% in all scenarios. The filtered H and A scenarios reduced mean PM2.5 and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) exposure by 98.4% and 94.4%, respectively, relative to the prescribed ambient profiles. The graphs for document prototype construction and functional bench observations and model results that have not yet been validated by enclosure tests are presented in Results Section. The close H/A performance over this short disturbance does not establish an advantage of ArtSorb and requires repeated humidity-disturbance experiments.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Applied Sciences, 2026 · DOI ↗