Evaluation and control of technical quality of components and technological subsystems and buildings

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Average

Principal focus of this research activity is the development of methods and instruments for the evaluation and control of technological quality of components and technological subsystems and buildings. Technical and scientific fields are: - Characteristic quality (initial) - Useful quality (durability) - Operative quality (put into work) - Maintenance quality. In terms of Characteristic quality (initial) the research activity dealt with the set up of quality estimation methods, based on building components’ performance evaluation, with calculation methods for design stages, with lab and on site test methods. The importance of supporting the durability technological requirement of building components through methodologies and consequent tests, has been expressed in a very significant way on an international level. This both through the methodological and experimental research that is being developed within the framework of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), through the ISO TC 59 SC 14 standardization activity. The research program aims to develop methodologies applicable to design and evaluation on a first set of component categories. The results we would obtain aim to set up a relevant methodological-experimental reference point for the systematic experimentation on building component durability to be calculated in technological laboratories (accelerated aging tests in reference conditions), and outdoor monitoring for the component’s time re-scaling in different weather stress conditions. A very relevant and innovative objective that is foreseen for the research, through the set up of methodologies applicable to the experimental evaluation of building component durability, is also the determination of the component’s conventional performance limits to estimate the ending time of Reference Service Life. Also investigated, will be an Engineering Method (as suggested in the ISO standards) to evaluate the component’s Service Life on the basis of specific indoor and outdoor environmental stress conditions according to the building’s location. This final objective is part of the research program into building components’ durability design, specifically aimed at the design decision makers and building maintenance planners. A further goal of the research program is to develop methodologies for the design of building durability in specific conditions, aimed at planning their maintenance. Such methodologies will be applied to significant case studies of both new constructions and renovations. The research is linked to international activities (the previous research having also been carried out with Italian contributions) developed by CIB W80 RILEM 175 112 “Service Life Methodologies”, translated into ISO standard by ISO TC 59/SC 14 (ISO 15686 – “Building and constructed assets: service life planning”). At a national level, the two-year research program (sponsored by MIUR) allowed us to develop a UNI standard (UNI 11156 “La valutazione della durabilità dei componenti edilizi. Durability evaluation of building components”, 2006). It is also clear that such a program completes the previous basic research, on the durability in buildings, providing tools for the passage from the service life of building components in standard conditions (reference service life) to the service life in well-defined, specific design conditions (estimated service life), in which several components interact consistently with the development of international and European research as well as the development of ISO and UNI standards, currently still in progress. The research items are the following: - development and application of methodologies and procedures for service life and reliability estimation of buildings in design conditions. - procedures for the monitoring of buildings, monitoring of buildings of new construction and validation of the methods for service life evaluation. - procedures for the monitoring of existing buildings (to be renovated) and for the assessment of their residual service life, as well as the consequent monitoring of existing buildings aimed at maintenance planning (once renovated). - procedures for the management of service life data (useful to maintenance planning), and data collection - structuring of a service life database consistent with the European database structure, and the implementation of data coming from experimental results

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Ambiente Costruito (BEST)

Docenti afferenti

Associate Professors
Bruno Daniotti