Settori ERC:
Durata:
Bridges are fundamental elements of our infrastructure system, indispensable for the effective movement of people and goods in territories with varied orography and often high seismic, hydraulic and geomorphological risk. The natural degradation of materials, accelerated by aggressive environmental conditions, inefficient maintenance, and construction flaws are reasons why the current infrastructural heritage requires a great deal of attention in order to identify the most critical situations and prevent the occurrence of adverse events. This proposal has drawn inspiration from recent field experiences in order to select protection, management, and maintenance measures that have immediate applications to real emergency situations. In particular, it is focused on the river flow dynamics, which plays an important role in riverbed morphology. Building a bridge pier along the river alters its cross-section, causing a change in the water flow. These changes are mainly responsible for pier scour, which represents the main cause of bridge failures. We propose the application of an innovative device that will act as an intensity damper of the vorticity generated by the complex dynamics occurring at the intersection between the bottom of the channel and the obstacle. BIO-EMBRACE aims at analyzing the flow dynamics at different flow regimes and the boundary conditions between the water flow and the bridge pier, through a novel, hybrid, multiscale approach. The final deliverable of the project will be the design and testing of an innovative device able to eventually reduce scour. We will develop an integrated theoretical-numerical-experimental methodology merging the experience of the partners in their areas of expertise, namely the fluid dynamics simulation and the experimental techniques. The numerical simulations will be conducted both through traditional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and two particle-based numerical methods, the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), given the expertise in this field of all the operating units involved. The numerical simulations, appropriately validated, will support the definition of models, which could be easily applied for design purposes.
Purpose:
The innovation of the project concerns the need to fill these gaps, addressing all three issues together, making them inseparably connected. As an additional important outcome of the project, the novel, bio-inspired bridgelet devices will be patented and possibly commercialized, to be installed as a retrofit countermeasure for existing piers. The commercialization of such novel devices will have a profound impact on the overall safety and maintenance sector, allowing for a boost in the performance of current Disaster Risk Management facilities and promoting new, safer standards for the engineering design and construction of new bridges. This new design paradigm, in addition to promoting safety, will also pave the way for the creation of structures that are easier to monitor, with the capacity to harvest energy directly from the water flow—an emerging field in technological research. This opportunity could revolutionize the approach to renewable energy and energy conservation, enabling direct use of energy from a vast but untapped source. The project will also provide new answers to the urgent problem of sustainable and clean energy generation, without impacting natural resources. In conclusion, this project is characterized by a huge scientific and socio-economic impact, in different fields ranging from hydraulic safety of existing piers, to the development of new standards for bridge design and maintenance.
One of the most interesting aspects of BIO-EMBRACE lies in the bio-inspiration of the countermeasures to be developed: the design of the proposed device is derived from nature, and more specifically from the deep-sea glass sponge Euplectella aspergillum, whose remarkable structural and fluid dynamic performance has inspired several important works in scientific literature. It is worth noting that the research units involved in this project have already successfully collaborated in the past, as highlighted by several co-authored publications listed in the scientists’ CVs. Furthermore, most of the people involved have already applied their areas of expertise to fluid-structure problems.
Risultati attesi:
L'impatto del progetto è ampio da diversi punti di vista. Il primo impatto importante è atteso nell’area della valutazione del rischio relativa alla vulnerabilità dei ponti. L’Italia è un territorio ricco di fiumi di grandi, medie e piccole dimensioni, molti dei quali attraversano manufatti, talvolta anche di importanza storica. Attraverso BIO-EMBRACE verranno fornite linee guida unificate per valutare meglio il rischio connesso ai diversi regimi di flusso rispetto alle caratteristiche e condizioni della struttura ostacolo, con la matrice di rischio come strumento OpenAccess per enti pubblici e aziende private. Uno strumento di questo tipo avrà un enorme impatto sulla capacità di un territorio di reagire prontamente ad eventi disastrosi, apportando così importanti benefici economici, ma soprattutto sociali. Dal punto di vista scientifico, la nuova metodologia ibrida, “massivamente” scalabile per l’HPC, applicata a casi studio reali, rappresenterà in sé una svolta, con potenziali ricadute anche in campi diversi da quello oggetto di indagine: i flussi a superficie libera e multifase, in generale, sono infatti onnipresenti e le loro applicazioni sono innumerevoli. Risultati simili e notevoli si avranno anche grazie alla campagna sperimentale, che produrrà un enorme dataset OpenAccess, di grande utilità sia per enti pubblici sia per aziende private. Inoltre, la possibilità di fare un confronto diretto tra la nuova metodologia ibrida e i risultati sperimentali permetterà di stabilire anche un nuovo paradigma scientifico e tecnologico per i nuovi standard ingegneristici in questo settore. Ad oggi, manca una metodologia integrata per l’analisi affidabile dell'interazione fluido-struttura a superficie libera. Questo è dovuto alla scarsità di dati sperimentali, alla mancanza di modelli numerici dell'interazione fluido-struttura contemporaneamente accurati e dai costi computazionali accettabili e all'assenza di modelli teorici affidabili da utilizzare in fase di progettazione.
Coordinatore:
Team:
Chiara Biscarini - University for Foreigners of Perugia
Valentino Santucci - University for Foreigners of Perugia
Giacomo Falcucci - University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
Andrea Colagrossi - National Research Council
Salvatore Marrone - National Research Council