Papers by Samuele Schiavoni
Building insulation is commonly realized using materials obtained from petrochemicals (mainly pol... more Building insulation is commonly realized using materials obtained from petrochemicals (mainly polystyrene) or from natural sources processed with high energy consumptions (glass and rock wools). These materials cause significant detrimental effects on the environment mainly due to the production stage, i.e. use of non-renewable materials and fossil energy consumption, and to the disposal stage, i.e. problems in reusing or recycling the products at the end of their lives. The introduction of the concept of “sustainability” in building design process encouraged researches aimed at developing thermal and acoustic insulating materials using natural or recycled materials. Some of them, such as kenaf or wood fiber, are already commercialized but their diffusion
could be further improved since their performance is similar to the synthetic ones. Others are currently under study and their development is only at an early stage. The goal of the paper is to report a state of the art of building insulation products made of natural or recycled materials that are not or scarcely commercialized. Comparative analyses were carried out considering in particular thermal characteristics in terms of thermal conductivity, specific heat and density. Data on the acoustic performance of the materials were also reported. Life Cycle Assessment data were finally collected, in order to put in evidence the environmental advantages of these materials.
Particular attention was paid to researches focused to exploit local materials and even industrial byproducts, since these approaches respectively limit transportation and disposal impacts.
Journal of Daylighting, 2015
From the Piranesi fantastic architectures to the animation movies and video games of the last thi... more From the Piranesi fantastic architectures to the animation movies and video games of the last thirty years, a new design approach has been introduced and developed: the design of the virtual space. Designing the "virtual" means experiencing a multidisciplinary approach where architecture, engineering, and urban planning meet the new horizons of information and communication technology. This study is focused on virtual space, which is an underground city. Mankind have always made and used underground environments: the possibilities of unlimited spaces to potential development, the reduced needs for raw materials for the construction and the protection from outdoor weather are some of the reasons that prompted humans to the realization of underground spaces in the past. These reasons and the availability of innovative technologies could encourage a breakthrough in the realization of new underground environments. A recent example is represented by the Underground City of Montreal (RÉSO). We present the architectural design of a virtual underground city, which is called Arch[ane], and its evaluation. The underground city is modular and the studied module is composed of eight floors with a total depth of 400 m and dimensions of 800 m × 800 m. The study comprises the evaluation of the effect of sunlight on each eight floors of the city. Daylighting simulations were performed considering different cities at different latitudes, days, and hours. The results have shown that the particular design of the underground city with skylights gives significant values of illuminance at a certain depth. Furthermore, the simulation results show how huge can be the potentialities of software to simulate extremely big environments.
The energy consumption of a building is strongly dependent on the characteristics of its envelope... more The energy consumption of a building is strongly dependent on the characteristics of its envelope. The thermal performance of external walls represents a key factor to increase the energy efficiency of the construction sector and to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. Thermal insulation is undoubtedly one of the best ways to reduce the energy consumption due to both winter heating and summer cooling. Insulation materials play an important role in this scenario since the selection of the correct material, its thickness and its position, allow to obtain good indoor thermal comfort conditions and adequate energy savings. Thermal properties are extremely important, but they are not the only ones to be considered when designing a building envelope: sound insulation, resistance to fire, water vapor permeability and impact on the environment and on human health need to be carefully assessed too.
The purpose of the paper is to provide a review of the main commercialized insulation materials (conventional, alternative and advanced) for the building sector through a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, considering thermal properties, acoustic properties, reaction to fire and water vapor resistance; environmental issues were also taken into account by means of Life Cycle Assessment approach. A comparative analysis was performed, considering also unconventional insulation materials that are not yet present in the market. Finally a case study was conducted evaluating both thermal transmittance and dynamic thermal properties of one lightweight and three heavyweight walls, with different types of insulating materials and ways of installation (external, internal or cavity insulation).
Free access until July 8, 2016 at http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1T3UZ4s9HvmHxl
Il progetto NADIA, acronimo di Noise Abatement Demostrative and Innovative Actions and informatio... more Il progetto NADIA, acronimo di Noise Abatement Demostrative and Innovative Actions and information to the public, finanziato dalla Commissione Europea nell'ambito del bando LIFE 2009 ENV/IT/000102, nasce dalla collaborazione di un gruppo di lavoro formato dalle ...
The Italian legislation prescribes that the managing authorities of transportation infrastructure... more The Italian legislation prescribes that the managing authorities of transportation infrastructures have to prepare a noise control and abatement plan, using established procedures and indexes defined both at national and regional level. The aim of the paper is to compare the standard procedure given by Umbria Region with three innovative methodologies proposed by the authors to increase the adequacy and the quality of roads noise planning activity. Both standard and innovative approaches require the creation of a ranking of priority to define where noise abatement actions are most necessary. The proposed methodologies introduce at various levels a more detailed phase of noise mapping, by using façade noise map instead of grid noise map, and define new rankings of priority based on improved location of calculation points. More accurate and realistic noise plans allow to optimize the budget allocated for acoustic rehabilitation and to mitigate the most critical situations. The innovative procedures can be easily transferred at European level for the realization of Noise Action Plans requested by the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC.
The paper concerns the use of granulated polymeric materials obtained from sheaths of electric wi... more The paper concerns the use of granulated polymeric materials obtained from sheaths of electric wires, mixed with concrete and water to produce under-floors with good sound and thermal insulating performance. This is a possible solution for the re-use of this typology of waste, so to avoid the disposal into landfills. Several configurations of the product were tested in the reverberation rooms of the Laboratory of Acoustics according to ISO 140-8 standard, in order to fully characterize the sound insulating properties; the thermal conductivity was measured through the hot box of the Laboratory of Thermotechnics, according to EN 1934. Also mechanical tests were executed in terms of dynamic stiffness according to EN 29052-1 and compressibility according to EN 12431; a chemical analysis completes the investigation of the mixture. The results show that the product presents satisfying thermal performance, together with go od mechanical properties; the chemical analysis of the loose polymers underlined the presence of some chlorinated and polycyclic hydrocarbons. From the acoustic point of view, the sound impact reduction index directly evaluated both with a direct test in the reverberation room and with the indirect estimations through the dynamic stiffness gave results comparable with common materials used for screeds. When the material was tested in conjunction with other typical components of floors, the sound impact reduction index showed poorer performance, underlining that the optimization of the acoustic properties has to be done taking into account of the combination with other floor materials.
Atti del
Il progetto NADIA, acronimo di Noise Abatement Demostrative and Innovative Actions and infromatio... more Il progetto NADIA, acronimo di Noise Abatement Demostrative and Innovative Actions and infromation to the public, finanziato dalla Commissione Europea nell'ambito del bando LIFE 2009 ENV/IT/000102, nasce dalla collaborazione di un gruppo di lavoro formato dalle Province di Genova e Savona, il Comune di Vicenza e CIRIAF, Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sull'Inquinamento da Agenti Fisici. Il progetto deriva dalla necessità di migliorare la comunicazione e la partecipazione dei soggetti interessati nel corso delle attività relative alla progettazione di interventi di risanamento acustico di infrastrutture di trasporto.
Some types of buildings need to use certain materials for aesthetic reasons, like churches or mos... more Some types of buildings need to use certain materials for aesthetic reasons, like churches or mosques. Marble is one of the most common materials usually installed on roofs and floors. The measurement of the thermal and optical characteristics can be useful to understand its behaviour when it is subjected to thermal loads such as solar radiation or high temperature winds. The paper shows a comparison study between natural and artificial types of marble, to investigate the thermal characteristics both in steady-state and transient conditions. Optical properties and surface emissivity were evaluated, in order to calculate the Solar Reflectance Index (SRI); the specific heat, the thermal conductivity and the density were measured to define the thermophysical properties useful for the dynamic analysis. Finally, a test bench was created to check the marble behaviour under known artificial irradiation.
NADIA (Noise Abatement Demonstrative and Innovative Actions and information to the public, LIFE 2... more NADIA (Noise Abatement Demonstrative and Innovative Actions and information to the public, LIFE 2009 ENV/IT/000102) is a project funded by the European Commission Directorate General "Environment" as part of the announcement Life + 2009 dealing mainly with the topic of road traffic noise. Detailed information on the project can be found on the project website [1] and in [2, 3]. The areas analysed in the project are 5 roads managed by the Provinces of Genova, 3 managed by the Province of Savona and parts of the agglomerations of Prato and Vicenza. Due to their traffic volume (for roads: higher than 3 million vehicles/year) or number of inhabitants (for agglomerations: higher than 100.000), the European Directive 2002/49/EC [4], implemented in Italy by the Legislative Decree n°194/2005 [5], imposes the realization of Strategic Noise Maps and Noise Action Plans for each of the considered areas. During Action n°2 of the project, data were collected for the realization of noise...
The European Union has provided in recent years (and is going to update) several tools to harmoni... more The European Union has provided in recent years (and is going to update) several tools to harmonise noisemapping
methodologies through directives and guidelines. Unfortunately the same efforts have not been put in the
harmonisation of approaches for Noise Action Plans, the effective instruments tomanage noise impacts. As a consequence,
each EuropeanMember State at national or even at local level defined its ownmethodology, usually considerably
different one fromthe others. Nevertheless, themost common approach to dealwith noise impact at a policy,
economic and strategy level is the use of priority indices focused to highlight areas or buildings where mitigation
actions are more advisable or urgent. The aim of the present research is to provide a review of the most used
European priority indices and also to test some of them in a study area. The comparative analysis demonstrates
that the method chosen for the prioritisation deeply affects the ranking of the areas where noise measures need
to be realized. Somemethods tend to give high priority to noise sensitive locations, others to high populated buildings,
and others to the areas where noise levels are high. The study proves howmuch common approaches are needed
also for Noise Action Plans to reach a coherent noise policy within European boundaries.
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Papers by Samuele Schiavoni
could be further improved since their performance is similar to the synthetic ones. Others are currently under study and their development is only at an early stage. The goal of the paper is to report a state of the art of building insulation products made of natural or recycled materials that are not or scarcely commercialized. Comparative analyses were carried out considering in particular thermal characteristics in terms of thermal conductivity, specific heat and density. Data on the acoustic performance of the materials were also reported. Life Cycle Assessment data were finally collected, in order to put in evidence the environmental advantages of these materials.
Particular attention was paid to researches focused to exploit local materials and even industrial byproducts, since these approaches respectively limit transportation and disposal impacts.
The purpose of the paper is to provide a review of the main commercialized insulation materials (conventional, alternative and advanced) for the building sector through a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, considering thermal properties, acoustic properties, reaction to fire and water vapor resistance; environmental issues were also taken into account by means of Life Cycle Assessment approach. A comparative analysis was performed, considering also unconventional insulation materials that are not yet present in the market. Finally a case study was conducted evaluating both thermal transmittance and dynamic thermal properties of one lightweight and three heavyweight walls, with different types of insulating materials and ways of installation (external, internal or cavity insulation).
Free access until July 8, 2016 at http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1T3UZ4s9HvmHxl
methodologies through directives and guidelines. Unfortunately the same efforts have not been put in the
harmonisation of approaches for Noise Action Plans, the effective instruments tomanage noise impacts. As a consequence,
each EuropeanMember State at national or even at local level defined its ownmethodology, usually considerably
different one fromthe others. Nevertheless, themost common approach to dealwith noise impact at a policy,
economic and strategy level is the use of priority indices focused to highlight areas or buildings where mitigation
actions are more advisable or urgent. The aim of the present research is to provide a review of the most used
European priority indices and also to test some of them in a study area. The comparative analysis demonstrates
that the method chosen for the prioritisation deeply affects the ranking of the areas where noise measures need
to be realized. Somemethods tend to give high priority to noise sensitive locations, others to high populated buildings,
and others to the areas where noise levels are high. The study proves howmuch common approaches are needed
also for Noise Action Plans to reach a coherent noise policy within European boundaries.
could be further improved since their performance is similar to the synthetic ones. Others are currently under study and their development is only at an early stage. The goal of the paper is to report a state of the art of building insulation products made of natural or recycled materials that are not or scarcely commercialized. Comparative analyses were carried out considering in particular thermal characteristics in terms of thermal conductivity, specific heat and density. Data on the acoustic performance of the materials were also reported. Life Cycle Assessment data were finally collected, in order to put in evidence the environmental advantages of these materials.
Particular attention was paid to researches focused to exploit local materials and even industrial byproducts, since these approaches respectively limit transportation and disposal impacts.
The purpose of the paper is to provide a review of the main commercialized insulation materials (conventional, alternative and advanced) for the building sector through a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, considering thermal properties, acoustic properties, reaction to fire and water vapor resistance; environmental issues were also taken into account by means of Life Cycle Assessment approach. A comparative analysis was performed, considering also unconventional insulation materials that are not yet present in the market. Finally a case study was conducted evaluating both thermal transmittance and dynamic thermal properties of one lightweight and three heavyweight walls, with different types of insulating materials and ways of installation (external, internal or cavity insulation).
Free access until July 8, 2016 at http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1T3UZ4s9HvmHxl
methodologies through directives and guidelines. Unfortunately the same efforts have not been put in the
harmonisation of approaches for Noise Action Plans, the effective instruments tomanage noise impacts. As a consequence,
each EuropeanMember State at national or even at local level defined its ownmethodology, usually considerably
different one fromthe others. Nevertheless, themost common approach to dealwith noise impact at a policy,
economic and strategy level is the use of priority indices focused to highlight areas or buildings where mitigation
actions are more advisable or urgent. The aim of the present research is to provide a review of the most used
European priority indices and also to test some of them in a study area. The comparative analysis demonstrates
that the method chosen for the prioritisation deeply affects the ranking of the areas where noise measures need
to be realized. Somemethods tend to give high priority to noise sensitive locations, others to high populated buildings,
and others to the areas where noise levels are high. The study proves howmuch common approaches are needed
also for Noise Action Plans to reach a coherent noise policy within European boundaries.