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Activities carried out by the PhD course
Intersectoral safety for disaster risk reduction and resilience - NEW!
Description: The project studies the problem of reducing the risks of disaster affecting the physical and built environment adopting an intersectoral approach with particular regard to structures and critical infrastructures, network systems and services, energy production and transport systems and other systems or assets of particular value for the community. The aim is to deal in a scientific and rational way with all the phases of the disaster management cycle: prevision, prevention, response and recovery. The objective is to define effective, integrated and pro-active methods and strategies for assessing, managing and improving safety. The risk reduction has seen as an integral part of sustainable development and of the increasing of territorial resilience; the topic is part of the UNESCO Chair on Intersectoral Safety for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience and is closely related to and functional to the objectives set by the United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development. (local website)
Advanced risk assessment for mould growth conditions and interstitial condensation in building envelopes
Description: The health and safety criticalities of building enclosures are mainly related to vapour migration and heat transfer. Residential, historic and public buildings that have not been properly designed, eventualy suffer from mould or rising dump. Advanced hygrothermal simulations of building envelopes could be used for the assessment of the risk of interstitial condensation and mould growth conditions, but they are relatively recent and not well known to technicians. The aim of this research activity is to find new applications and procedures to ensure better health, safety and comfort standards for the built environment. (local website)
Catalysts for reduction of particulate emissions assisted by NOx
Description: Removal of soot from diesel exhaust gas is a challenging topic. The emissions of diesel engines are known to be hazardous pollutants for human health. The research focuses on the development of new catalytic materials for the oxidation of particulate matter at low temperatures assisted by NOx. The attention is focused on identification of active species, definition of reaction mechanism, knowledge on the chemical properties of the catalyst components, influence of the contact type between catalyst and soot, influence of the operating cycles on the catalytic performances in order to find correlations between catalyst properties and catalytic activity. (local website)
Multiphase dispersed flows: Simulations and experiments
Description: Multiphase dispersed flows are common in a wide spectrum of engineering applications and environmental processes: examples include fluid transport in pipelines, filtration systems, pulp and paper making, drug delivery devices, pollutant dispersion. Aim of the research activities is to provide a multiscale characterization of multiphase flows by combining state-of-the-art numerical and experimental techniques. These are used to improve physical understanding of heat, mass and momentum transfer phenomena and to develope phenomenological predictive models. (local website)Preferred background: Laurea or equivalent degree in Mechanical Engineering or Applied Physics.