FELSSO is an innovative research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Henry Moore Foundation. The research team members are Dr. Angela Geary, Dr. John P. Harrison (Senior Lecturer in Rock Mechanics, Imperial College London), Mr. Derek Pullen (Head of Sculpture Conservation, Tate) and the FELSSO Research Fellow in Numerical Analysis (UAL, TBA). The study is a first for the application of the engineering technique of Finite Element Analysis to the modelling of stress behaviour and prediction of damage in the field of cultural heritage conservation. Initially, the research will focus on the analysis of large scale stone sculpture.

It is difficult, even for conservation experts, to predict how stone sculptures will react to, and whether they may be damaged by, conditions of display, handling and transit. Currently, decisions are made on the basis of experience and the "best guess" of how the sculpture might behave. It is against this background that the FELSSO project was conceived; the aim of the project is to provide museums and collections with a computer-based tool that will allow the probable outcome of proposed actions to be analytically predicted before such decisions are made.

The Henry Moore Foundation gave permission for Moore's travertine stone "Large Arch" (1980) to be used as the principal subject for the FELSSO study. "Large Arch", one of Moore's most significant later works, was displayed at the side lake in Kensington Gardens and dismantled fifteen years ago due to structural instability. To date, no method has been found to determine whether the sculpture can be safely reconstructed and, if so, how this might be best achieved. As a result, the individual blocks of travertine from which "Large Arch" is sculpted have remained in storage since that time.

3D Laser scanning and FEA are the principal analytical methods applied in the research. FEA is a mature technology that is widely used in engineering to calculate the strength of structures such as buildings, cars and aircraft, but with FELSSO it will be applied to sculptural artifacts in order to accurately model the probable impact that different handling or display scenarios may have. During summer 2006 3D laser scanning was applied to both the blocks of the dismantled "Large Arch" and a fibreglass replica, currently displayed at RHS Wisley. The resulting geometric data will allow the internal stresses, to which the reconstructed sculpture would be subject, to be modelled and assessed. In this way it will be possible to determine how the sculpture could be reconstructed safely. It is possible that reconstruction may require the use of internal reinforcing elements; the FELSSO model will be able to consider various materials for these, and determine their positions within the sculpture.

The use of the "Large Arch" as the principal subject for the FELSSO project is a unique and exciting opportunity to show how modern data acquisition and numerical analysis methods can help solve the very real conservation challenges involved in redisplaying this spectacular piece. The research project will deliver a detailed practical strategy for the physical conservation and redisplay of the sculpture. In addition, the 3D data captured from the sculpture will be available for use by the Henry Moore Foundation in a variety of ways, including the computer aided manufacture of a scaled facsimile for display and educational purposes, and 3D models for virtual display and web based access.