Claudia Cerbai                            

Thesis project title:to be defined

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Jessica Di Mario

Thesis project title: Utilization of by-products from agri-food chains for the production of bioactive molecules, biomaterials, and biofertilizers in a third-generation biorefinery.

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The overall aim of the project is to reuse waste biomasses from the agri-food industry to produce economical valuable molecules biogas, as last step, trough anaerobic digestion

Eleonora Dottorini

Thesis project title: The Monumental Cemetery of Perugia. Study on the integrated digital methodologies and technologies for the knowledge and the communication of cultural heritage

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Recent technological advancements have introduced new operational and methodological approaches to the protection, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. On one hand, they have expanded the possibilities for surveying and documenting historical heritage, while on the other, they have innovated and simplified the procedures for monitoring, managing, and envisioning scenarios of conservation and restoration, as seen in the case of virtual restoration of archaeological and monumental assets. Digital environments and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have also paved the way for new ways of experiencing cultural heritage. In more advanced cases, this has led to bottom-up processes of participatory knowledge construction and the dissemination and sharing of information and cultural content by individual citizens. This approach has strategically oriented towards the creation of heritage communities—social groups informed and aware of the identity value of cultural heritage. These communities are active in taking responsibility for the places and assets present, becoming autonomous promoters of sensitivity towards protection and enhancement. Current policies for managing historical heritage aim to implement the contents and guidelines of reference documents, such as the Faro Convention. This is achieved through operational disciplines focused on heritage education (National Plans for Heritage Education), its digitization (National Plan for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage), and its interpretation and communication (Ename Charter, Interpret Europe Association). In this context, the integrated use of digital technologies is now widespread in all methodological phases and plays a crucial role in representation and modeling in management processes. This includes the creation of the knowledge model (digital twin) and its technical, study, and communicative use.

The Umbrian case study identified for the application of new methodologies for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage is the monumental cemetery of Perugia, which is part of the broader context of cemetery architecture. Cemeteries are the visible and concrete manifestation of a community's moral, religious, and traditional sentiments related to the profound theme of death and the possible prospect of an 'other' life. Over time, burial places change in shape and appearance, but their intrinsic value as expressions of the collective memory of a society remains unchanged. The main types of dwellings for the deceased throughout history have been essentially four. The "tomb-house", taking various forms such as caves or pyramids, is a place intended to accommodate one or a limited number of deceased. In this context, burial takes on the specular significance of a dwelling. The "cities of the dead" or "necropolises" are cemeteries located outside cities, widespread from classical times until the early Middle Ages when, starting from the 5th century AD, the custom of burying the deceased shifted from extra-urban locations to ‘sanctos’, i.e., as close as possible to the bodies of the holy martyrs, or apud Ecclesiam, in the outer or inner parts of city churches. The dwelling of the saints thus becomes a new urban space, within which, in addition to functions related to the worship of the dead, other activities such as trade or recreation also took place. This model goes into crisis in the 18th century when, for ideological but also hygienic-sanitary reasons, it leads to the model of the cemetery "in marginal space." The cemetery of Perugia is located on an Etruscan-Roman burial area and was inaugurated on November 23, 1849, by the then Archbishop Gioacchino Pecci, against the opposition of society at the time, more inclined to continue the tradition of burial in churches. The monumental complex was built in several stages. The first core was designed by municipal engineer Filippo Lardoni with a project dating back to 1837; subsequently, Alessandro Arienti planned the first expansion between 1874 and 1886, during which the side porticos, the entrance portal, and the chapel of Mercy, designed by Nazareno Biscarini, were built.

Burial places are of great importance as custodians of tangible and intangible heritage, and there are international entities already working towards their enhancement. The UNESCO list of cemeteries currently counts 93 sites; in November 2001, the Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe (ASCE) was founded, with more than 150 cemeteries across Europe, many of which are part of the European Cemeteries Route, a route recognized by the Council of Europe and awarded by UNWTO (World Tourism Organization of United Nations) in 2011

Livia Fabbretti                       

Thesis project title: Study and implementation of innovative methods for seismic monitoring and damage detection in strategic public buildings.

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Debora Falocci                       

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Gregorio Gazzetta

Thesis project title: Water availability evaluation by reanalysis and ground measurements

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The research will concern the simulation of the water table elevation in shallow unconfined aquifers where infiltration is assumed as the main mechanism of recharge. The project aims at developing and demonstrating the application of a comprehensive real-time technology for mitigating the drought impact in Water Networks. This technology is based on extensive use of global atmospheric datasets and ground measurements. It will allow forecasting the water availability in terms of the water bodies (i.e., aquifers) level. Such a forecast will be used to design real-time sustainable management of water distribution networks.

Pasquale Guarino

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Enrique Garcia-Macias

Francesco Leopardi

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Francesco Mariani

Thesis project title: Handling uncertainties in Safety Assessment of Existing Bridges - SAFER

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One of the main challenges in modern civil engineering is the multi-risk analysis of infrastructures aimed at optimizing maintenance interventions and ensuring sustainable and resilient management of transport networks. The case of bridges is particularly relevant due to the high number of structures requiring maintenance and their exposure to evolving (aging of materials) and natural (landslides, earthquakes, and floods) phenomena, prompting the recent issuance of specific regulatory measures. In this context, uncertainties regarding the environment in which the structures are located and their actual behavior play a crucial role.
Risk analyses involve the thorough evaluation of the safety of structures for which specific critical issues have been identified at a lower hierarchical level. Despite having regulatory provisions (e.g. Eurocodes or Italian NTC2018), there is a lack of a systematic approach to managing and mitigating the impact of uncertainties on the outcomes of such evaluations. Consequently, there are no significant experiences and specific indications regarding the execution of surveys, structural investigations, and instrumental monitoring aimed at improving the reliability of safety assessment, despite numerous recent contributions on the subject. In this context, digital innovation can play a decisive role in the automation and standardization of processing processes, as well as in the evaluation of evolving phenomena. Overall, it is necessary to address the problem of accurately assessing the safety of existing bridges in a severely uncertain context and employ innovative strategies, such as those based on Bayesian inference, to manage and mitigate the impact of uncertainties on safety assessment outcomes by utilizing available information based on in-situ surveys and instrumental monitoring systems.

Michele Mattiacci

Thesis project title: Advanced strategies for strain-based health monitoring of masonry structures

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Masonry structures, predominant in Europe's built heritage, face preservation challenges due to material degradation and seismic hazards. Assessing the structural integrity of masonry buildings is often a challenging task, especially in the case of historical structures. This is mainly because features such as irregular geometry, heterogeneity of masonry, material ageing, and damages suffered over the years due to unexpected loading conditions (like earthquakes and foundation settlements, to name a few) introduce uncertainties in determining their actual structural response.

Historic masonry buildings preservation throughout Europe is an immediate priority, necessitating suitable Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) solutions that should establish a connection between measured data related to the structure's in-service response and its residual load-bearing capacity and structural integrity. As of now, the widespread implementation of SHM systems in masonry structures remains limited. This is primarily due to challenges associated with off-the-shelf sensors that face issues related to scalability, durability, transmission, and high costs. Considering the above, smart materials could constitute a cutting-edge technology to overcome such limitations related to the practical implementation of SHM systems in masonry buildings. In addition to this, the analysis of data collected by sensors made from these innovative materials using AI and machine learning algorithms can enable automated earthquake-induced damage identification, quantification, and localization. The proposed research project aims to establish a novel methodology for promptly assessing the structural condition of masonry structures following a hazardous event, leveraging innovative sensing technology based on smart materials, Artificial Intelligence, and numerical modeling.

Carlos Eugenio Moureira Desousa

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Martina Natali

Thesis project title: Integrated use of radar backscatter observations, machine learning and land surface modeling to improve soil and vegetation dynamics in Mediterranean agroforestry systems

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The proposed doctoral dissertation aims to enhance the understanding of soil-water-vegetation interactions in Mediterranean agroforestry systems through the integrated use of radar backscatter observations, machine learning, and land surface modeling. The research focuses on addressing the challenges posed by climate-induced water stress in rain-fed, natural ecosystems, which increasingly affects photosynthesis and evapotranspiration processes. By leveraging high-resolution, multi-frequency and multi-polarization backscatter data from different satellite platforms, and assimilating these into the Noah-Multiparameterization Land Surface Model (Noah-MP), the project seeks to improve predictions of vegetation dynamics and water stress. The methodology involves collecting remote sensing and in-situ data across selected sites in Italy, equipped with multiple instruments for measuring soil moisture, vegetation and carbon fluxes, applying machine learning to establish relationships between radar data and biophysical variables, and integrating data into the Noah-MP model through data assimilation techniques. This approach is expected to enhance the model's accuracy in simulating soil moisture, vegetation water content, and overall ecosystem responses to environmental changes. The research outcomes will offer significant implications for forestry ecosystems' services, agricultural practices and water resource management in Mediterranean environments.

Yariv Portnoy

Thesis project title: Evaluating 3D woven carbon phenol parts as SRMs nozzle throats.

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In solid rocket motors (SRM) nozzles, the throat area which suffers from the worst erosion, is made of refractory metals for small SRMs and from graphite or carbon carbon composites in larger SRMs. The disadvantages of using graphite are (1) high thermal conductivity which requires further additional layers of thermal protection around the graphite throat insert, (2) recent years increasing demand for graphite material due to the increase in the electric transportation market creates supply chain challenges for the SRM industry. In this work, an effort will be undertaken to develop optimize, and evaluate 3D woven carbon phenol parts as SRMs throat inserts in terms of erosion resistance.

Sara Prapotnich

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Waqas Qayyum

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Arash Rahimi

Thesis project title: Structural Health Monitoring and intelligent damage diagnosis of railway bridges using machine learning approaches

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The proposed research aims to contribute to the development of advanced and automated techniques for damage detection and structural health monitoring of railway bridges.

Mehran Shahpari

Thesis project title: to be defined

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Asad Ullah

Thesis project title: "Advanced analysis methods for Arch Gravity Dams (AGD) subjected to coupled seismic, hydraulic, static stresses"

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Arch gravity dams play a critical role in water resource management by ensuring the safe retention of large water bodies while simultaneously withstanding significant hydrodynamic and seismic forces. Their design leverages both the gravitational weight of the structure and the inherent strength of the arch to transfer loads efficiently. As infrastructure built in seismically active regions, such dams require ongoing structural analysis to guarantee their long-term safety, particularly under hydrostatic and dynamic conditions. Given the complexity of the forces acting on arch gravity dams, advanced Finite Element Modeling (FEM) has emerged as a pivotal tool in assessing both their static and seismic responses.

Dams like the Ridracoli Dam are exemplary structures that demonstrate the importance of integrating updated seismic data, geological conditions, and material properties into sophisticated FEM models. By conducting studies focused on soil-structure interaction, particularly under variable loading scenarios, it is possible to enhance the safety and resilience of such critical infrastructure. The present research aims to build upon these foundational studies, utilizing the Ridracoli Dam as a case study to investigate broader challenges and develop a deeper understanding of the dynamic behavior of arch gravity dams.

Sousa Israel (afferenza con Dottorato nazionale "Difesa dai rischi naturali e transizione ecologica del costruito" con sede amministrativa presso l’Università di Catania)

Thesis project title: to be defined

abstract