Recent Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Bridges in Italy

La Storia incontra la Scienza tra l'Abruzzo e il Texas/ History meets Science between Abruzzo and Texas, Quasar, Roma, 2019

Attraverso le imprese di alcuni interpreti – architetti, ingegneri e costruttori - dell’architettura e dell’applicazione del cemento armato nella realizzazione di grandi opere infrastrutturali, quali i ponti, e di ricostruzioni successive al sisma del 1915, s’intende evidenziare la presenza in Abruzzo di un’attività progettuale al passo con la modernizzazione del territorio nazionale e del linguaggio formale, negli anni del ventennio fascista e dell’immediato secondo dopoguerra. Un percorso guidato attraverso alcune opere significative, a iniziare da quelle eseguite dall’ingegnere e costruttore di origine tedesca Rodolfo Stoelcker, la cui indubbia capacità tecnica e il favore goduto nell’ambito professionale e politico lo portarono al fianco di progettisti di chiara fama a scala nazionale, come Cesare Bazzani e Riccardo Morandi, e locale, come il non meno autorevole ingegnere Sebastiano Bultrini. Per poi concludere con la presenza a L’Aquila di professionisti del calibro di Ettore Rossi e Sergio Musmeci. Through the enterprises of several professionals – architects, engineers and contractors – in architecture and in utilising reinforced concrete to create major infrastructural works, such as bridges and reconstructions after the 1915 earthquake, this paper seeks to demonstrate that design activity in Abruzzo was in step with the nationwide modernisation of both territory and architectural language during the twenty years of Fascism and in the immediate second post-war period. A guided itinerary through some significant works, starting from those of the German-born engineer and contractor Rodolfo Stoelcker, whose undoubted technical ability and the favour he enjoyed in professional and political circles rank him with the famous designers of Italy, such as Cesare Bazzani and Riccardo Morandi, and even local ones, like the no-less-competent engineer Sebastiano Bultrini, concluding at L’Aquila with professionals of the calibre of Ettore Rossi and Sergio Musmeci.

Materials

In the last 20 years, there have been a series of seismic events in Italy that have caused serious damage to civil and building structures. This has led to a significant increase in the use of concrete for the reconstruction of new structures and the repair of existing structures damaged by earthquakes. At the same time, the concrete industry is responsible for the most significant environmental damage during the life cycle of the built environment. The environmental disadvantages characterizing the concrete industry are related to the constant growth of the exploitation of natural aggregates. Therefore, it is necessary to use alternative and innovative aggregates that provide good concrete performance and lower environmental impacts. In this study, a very promising route from an environmental point of view is given by the use of artificial aggregates from industrial waste as substitutes for natural aggregates. An innovative low cost and energy saving granulation process has been em...

2018

European historic bridges are made with a wide range of different materials (from masonry to wooden trusses to R.C. structures) and they present differently shaped structural elements (foundation poles, piers, shoulders, deck). If we also consider the differences in conservation and decay of the mechanical characteristic of the materials, it is possible to have an idea of the complexity of the definition of the parameters required for the static and seismic safety assessment of such structures. Italian structural codes for the assessment and reduction of seismic hazard of cultural heritage state the knowledge of an historical construction to be the fundamental pre-requisite to obtain a reliable assessment of the structural condition of the construction. Accordingly they define a specific “path of knowledge” aimed at the identification of relevant geometric and structural information. This allows a level of knowledge to be reached that is suitable for implementing a structural model ...

This paper investigates the process of iron bridge construction by the Italian engineer Alfredo Cottrau and his company I.I.I.C.M. from 1870 to 1887. The objective is to explain how iron came to replace wood in the building of lattice bridges in Italy and how Cottrau was able to build a company against a backdrop of technological disadvantages that was a direct consequence of Italy’s economic and political situation. Towards this end, the paper assesses the production and construction processes, as they provide a vital clue for tracing back and understanding the technological influences that were coming in from abroad. Moreover, this historical period demonstrates that in comparison to France, Germany, and England at that time, Italy was considered to be a step behind, both politically and economically. This paper intends to explain the specific circumstances that led the country towards technological progress and the particular path that it followed, as well as showing that simply trying to keep up with changes in the neighboring countries could serve as an end in itself. The article was published in Bowen, Brian; Friedman, Donald; Leslie, Thomas; Ochsendorf, John (Eds.), PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON CONSTRUCTION HISTORY, JUNE 2015, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Construction History Society of America, Volume 3, p. 465-472.

Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2019

The paper presents the main aspects of contemporary Italian scenario of construction sector, underlying the importance of renoval in the next years, especially concerning energy efficiency retrofit. Moreover, the paper includes two important case studies in Italy, housing and schools buildings, which both present great needs of refurbishment.

2017

Technobius, 2021

The paper describes the technology of manufacturing a construction product by vibrocompression using ash and slag waste from thermal power plants in the Pavlodar region. The task of the experimental research was to obtain a hollow wall stone based on ash and slag waste with a strength grade that is not inferior to products made according to the traditional recipe. The obtained samples with different ratios of components in the mixture were investigated for compressive strength, moisture absorption, frost resistance. It has been established that when ash and slag waste are added to the composition of the concrete mixture in an amount of up to 35 % of the mass of dry components, the strength characteristics of the hollow wall stone correspond to the selected brand

2010

Raw earth is a construction material unknown to most people. Nowadays, raw-earth constructions are an area of growing interest, both for rescuing the heritage and for a rediscovered environmentally friendly building and eco-sustainability material. However, because raw-earth constructions are a forgotten technique, we find problems of a lack of skilled people at all levels in this area, from designers to masons, as well as problems of how to carry out compatible conservation works on earthen heritage. This paper tries to fill the gap for a peculiar historic earthen building technology, namely cob (or bauge), which is present in Macerata in the center of Italy. Results are presented on regaining possession of the material and constructional aspects and their initial structural resources, and guidelines are given on how to improve the manufacturing process to reuse the cob technique for construction and for how to accurately work on it for a compatible and sustainable conservation.

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2009

In this paper the results concerning a non destructive investigation conduced in situ on a concrete bridge built approximately on thirties in province of Reggio Calabria are reported. The study of "ancient" concrete is interesting because provides information about materials and technologies available at the time of production and the knowledge of the main physical properties of concrete and its state of conservation. The Laser Scanner technology is applied for measuring the geometrical property of structural elements of concrete bridge and the Georadar technique is applied instead to the determination of the intern morphology, to the lack of homogeneity research and defectiveness and to the determination of the location of the steel reinforcements. The Laser Scanner technology (LST) allows to reproduce 3D physical models through single succeeding scanning. In this paper the LST is utilized for the geometric survey of the concrete bridge and the solid model created by the laser scanner is acquired automatically from a finite element programme. Moreover the research is oriented to understand the composition of the mixture used in the casting of concrete bridge and the actual state of its deterioration and strength. In fact, in addition to in-situ observation and measurement of mechanical strength of concrete, in this work, the help of Hearth Science analytic techniques is considered. These are employed to: (i) distinguish the typologies and the composition of inerts and binder fraction and their percentage used in the concrete (ii) obtain the porosimetry of concrete in order to determine total pore volume area (MIP: Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry), (iii) estimate the level of chemical deterioration with the determination of soluble salts (Ion Chromatography) presents inside the material.

Sustainable Venice: Suggestions for the Future, 2001

Some aspects of the historical evolution of the presence of material production in Venice For convention's sake, we have defined material production not only as production activities, the output of which we usually call goods (primary materials, intermediate products, parts, components, investment goods and consumer goods, both durable and non-durable) as opposed to services, but also all those activities which, in any case, are characterised by a specific tendency to be land consuming, such as wholesale trade and , in particular, the coastal fuel deposits, port and airport services. Despite the fact that immaterial production has significantly increased in qualitative and quantitative importance over the last two decades on a global level, an initial question must be asked ; whether the production base of an urban area can be substantially characterised and sustained in the future, from the socioeconomic perspective, only by other non-material production activities. An initial response, which remains to be proved, could lead to the belief that, despite the fact that material production has continually declined over the years in all of the urban are as of the oldest industrialisation, such as the Venetian area, it still seems possible and, perhaps, beneficial to the socioeconomic and cultural equilibrium of the city that material production not only contributes to generating the demand for labour and , therefore, employment, but also contributes to differentiating the export base with respect to tourismoriented supply and other possible immaterial production activities which are characterising many metropolitan areas. We now turn our attention to the Venetian area. The data we have, which relates to the situation of the production plants at the end of 1991 (ISTAT census) and the information gathered from different sources referring to more recent years, allows us to formulate an initial descriptive-interpretative picture 121