Valerio De Biagi

Associate Professor
Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering (DISEG)

  • Member of Interdepartmental Center SISCON - Safety of Infrastructures and Constructions

Profile

Research interests

Black swan events
Civil engineering
Damage
Damage modelling
Natural hazards
Reliability
Robustness
Rockfalls
Structural health monitoring
Structural mechanics

Scientific branch

ICAR/08 - STRUCTURAL MECHANICS
(Area 0008 - Civil engineering and architecture)

Skills

ERC sectors

PE8_3 - Civil engineering, architecture, maritime/hydraulic engineering, geotechnics, waste treatment
PE10_5 - Geology, tectonics, volcanology

SDG

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Fellowships

  • Effective member - SISCO - Società Italiana di Scienza delle Costruzioni, Italia (2019-)

Editorial boards

  • APPLIED SCIENCES (2020-), Guest Editor of magazine or editorial series

Teaching

PhD Boards

  • DEFENSE AGAINST NATURAL RISKS AND ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT - DIFESA DAI RISCHI NATURALI E TRANSIZIONE ECOLOGICA DEL COSTRUITO, 2021/2022 (38. ciclo)
    Università degli Studi di CATANIA
  • INGEGNERIA CIVILE E AMBIENTALE, 2021/2022 (38. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO

Courses of Study Boards

Teachings

PhD

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Master of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Bachelor of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Research

Research fields

Research projects

Projects funded by competitive calls

Projects funded by commercial contracts

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Supervised PhD students

  • Lorenza Abbracciavento. Programme in Ingegneria Civile E Ambientale (cycle 38, 2022-in progress)
    Research subject: Ageing and monitoring of infrastructures in severe environmental conditions
    Civil Works
  • Francesco Pimpinella. Programme in Ingegneria Civile E Ambientale (cycle 38, 2022-in progress)
  • Elahe Zeinali Miankooh. Programme in Ingegneria Civile E Ambientale (cycle 38, 2022-in progress)

Other activities and projects related to research

Structural complexity and robustness:
- Study of the behaviour of frames following structural damage or removal of a structural element, with particular reference to: (i) effect of the duration of removal of the structural element on the dynamic response of the damaged structure, (ii) effect of strain-rate in the materials on the dynamic response of a steel frame subjected to the removal of a structural element (column); (iii) analysis of steel frames subjected to removal of column by explosion overpressure, (iv) response of damaged structures through the calculation of elastic deformation energy;
- modelling of progressive damage on reinforced concrete structures.
- proposals and regulatory developments in the strength assessment of reinforced concrete structures;
- evaluation of the strength of process artefacts (industrial archaeology) such as metal tanks, refinery towers, etc;
- structural robustness of small reinforced concrete reservoirs;
- structural robustness of industrial infrastructures (hydrocarbon tanks) through dimensional analyses with the aim of finding non-site-specific behaviour parameters.
- evaluation of the inspection process for civil works (bridges) forming part of the Italian motorway network (under concession to Autostrade per l'Italia).

Natural phenomena and interaction with constructions
- Interaction between snow avalanche and constructions (impact forces);
- Field experiments, on-site surveys, structural back-analyses;
- rock falls: hazard, risk and mitigation. The activity was developed through the study of different macro-themes: (i) creation of a frequency law that allows to correlate the reference volume (with which the impact energy is assessed) to the return period, (ii) construction of event trees for the risk assessment of civil works, (iii) study of the vulnerability of structures subjected to rock collapse phenomena and preparation of speditive structural survey sheets, (iv) study of the deterioration of works for risk mitigation, (v) probabilistic study of the reliability of rockfall protection works by analysing the role of individual design parameters in the calculation of the probability of failure, (vi) fragmentation of blocks following detachment from the rocky slope during motion, (vii) idealisation of an analysis methodology (event tree) for the construction of a univocal approach for risk assessment on various types of linear infrastructures subject to rockfall hazards;
- development of a deformation-controlled device capable of absorbing the impact energy of a body;
- dynamic effects on debris flow protection structures;
- study of a small-scale experimental system for the evaluation of impact actions against a civil structure (reinforced concrete wall or wall face).


Mechanics of granular materials (snow)
- implementation of a system for carrying out tests under displacement control on an existing equipment for direct shear tests on granular materials;
- mechanics of granular materials: study of shear failure mechanisms in granular materials with very low cohesion. The study relates to the fracture of layers of ice grains and was conducted by means of image analysis techniques (PIV and DIC);
- experimental campaign aimed at studying the snowpack-rigid surface interface.

Publications

Last years publications

Last years publications View all publications in Porto@Iris

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