New Insights in the Mechanical Modeling of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Restoration: Green Composites and Nano-Technologies

Abstract

Cultural heritage is of paramount importance for the Italian territory due to the presence of a great number of ancient structures with historical and archeological interest. The main aim of Italian culture is based on preservation, conservation and restoration of architectural heritage, however, these aspects are very complex when set in the context of structural mechanics due to different constructive typologies present on the national territory which is characterized by high seismicity. This is a threat for such structures which in general have poor resistance to horizontal actions. Therefore monitoring and acting on these structures becomes an open challenge for structural engineers especially when green technologies come into place due to the several environmental threats led by modern human beings. There is a need for theoretical and numerical modeling of green-nanocomposites to be considered in this context by taking into consideration the interdisciplinary and interoperability actions needed for such designs. Furthermore, the preservation of built heritage often requires the design of strengthening interventions on masonry structures. In this field, external bonded systems have been proposed in the last decades by adopting composite fibrous materials with high tensile strength. The initial use of carbon-based materials bonded to masonry with organic adhesives has been overcome by the adoption of sustainable solutions based on natural and organic materials. Reinforcement with FRCM represents a recent eco-compatible development, which can be further improved by the use of natural (NFRCM) or, better, vegetal fibers.

These technologies require dedicated analytical and numerical models able to successfully reproduce the strengthening effect and evaluate the effectiveness of sustainable interventions for the reinforcement of masonry structures. Focusing also on green and sustainable technologies for masonry buildings, compressed and/or stabilized earth block (CEB, SEB, CSEB) masonry represents an ancient construction approach that deserves to be updated to current building standards by focusing on its advantages in terms of use of local materials and reduction of construction and transport costs. Such a technology can be improved and optimized by focusing on its mechanical behavior at material and structural level, in order to encourage its application, not necessarily in developing countries. A research team, expert in the area of structural mechanics, will drive the main Work Packages (WPs) of the project:  (i) MECHANICAL MODELING focusing on constituent materials and related constitutive aspects, treated using discrete or non-standard continuous multiscale approaches; (ii) NUMERICAL IMPLEMENTATION using advanced computational tools;

Team di ricerca UNIBO

Nicholas Fantuzzi, Francesca Ferretti

Partner di progetto

Sapienza, IUAV