Alessandro Mauro

Alessandro Mauro
Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli · Dipartimento di Ingegneria

Full Professor, PhD

About

110
Publications
31,809
Reads
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1,371
Citations
Additional affiliations
December 2020 - present
Parthenope University of Naples
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
December 2017 - December 2020
Parthenope University of Naples
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
February 2015 - March 2015
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Position
  • Visiting Scientist
Education
January 2007 - December 2009
University of Naples Federico II
Field of study
  • Engineering of Mechanical Systems
September 2004 - October 2006
University of Naples Federico II
Field of study
  • Mechanical Engineering for Energy and Environment
September 2001 - September 2004
University of Naples Federico II
Field of study
  • Mechanical Engineering

Publications

Publications (110)
Article
Full-text available
The need to use efficient and eco-friendly air conditioning systems is a fundamental requirement for today’s society. In this context, low and medium enthalpy geothermal energy plays a crucial role. The research and development activities carried out in the present work have made it possible to successfully design and analyze an innovative technolo...
Article
Full-text available
Using Ground Coupled Heat Pump (GCHP) systems in urban areas can be particularly difficult due to space or legislative constraints, other than excessive costs due to drilling. To overcome these problems, the authors proposed to use Artificial Ground Freezing (AGF) probes, used for tunnel excavation, as Ground Heat Exchangers (GHE). It is a widespre...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model based on the finite element method (FEM) is developed to determine the fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena in a real multi-tube downhole heat exchanger (DHE), designed ad hoc for the present application, considering natural convection inside a geothermal reservoir. The DHE has been effectiv...
Article
The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system in an Operating Room (OR) has two main functions: evacuate contaminants to guarantee an elevated Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and ensure the thermal comfort of the occupants. The UltraFine Particles (UFP) generated during the surgical operation can cause health-related risks at higher concentr...
Article
Carbon dioxide (CO2) can reduce cognitive abilities at higher concentrations. CO2 can be used as a proxy for gas transport in an indoor environment and as an index to determine Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). In the present work, CO2 transport inside a real university classroom has been analysed experimentally and numerically. The main novelty is related...
Article
Full-text available
This paper experiences the potential of the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technique as a strategy to facilitate the energy performance analysis of existing buildings with historical relevance. The relationship between BIM and sustainability is an emerging concept which is becoming more and more interesting in the construction industry....
Article
This work focuses on the transient natural convection in vertical annuli partially filled with a porous medium, characterized by a low value of Darcy number. The generalized porous medium model has been implemented and solved by using a validated and stable version of a fully explicit fractional step algorithm. Sensitivity analyses are performed he...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the numerical solution of thermal field of a set of geothermal coaxial probes coupled with the surrounding soil. These probes, used for the excavation of Naples underground’s tunnels with the artificial ground freezing technique, are converted for the heat transfer fluid transport for a geothermal plant. One-dimensional energy e...
Article
Full-text available
The energy crisis in Pakistan has crippled the country’s economy with an energy shortfall reaching up to 6000 MW. Fortunately, Pakistan lies close to the Sun Belt and therefore receives very high irradiation. To this end, in the beginning of 2014 the Pakistani government sanctioned a solar photovoltaic project namely Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park which w...
Article
Full-text available
PurposeThis study aims to describe vessel density differences in tractional versus exudative macular oedema with the aid of novel custom imaging analysis techniques.Methods In this retrospective study, patients with exudative and tractional macular oedema were imaged with optical coherence tomography (OCT), en-face OCT, OCT-angiography and fluoresc...
Article
The main role of Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in Operating Rooms (ORs) is to ensure the desired thermo-hygrometric conditions and indoor air quality, minimizing the risk of air contamination. The main sources of contamination inside ORs, during surgical operations, are Colony-Forming Units (CFUs), fine particles and ultrafin...
Article
This work presents a numerical model developed to predict the behaviour of a real micro-cogeneration biomass gasification system, based on a fixed-bed downdraft gasifier, coupled with a spark-ignition internal combustion engine. The model developed by the authors takes into account all the thermo-physical processes occurring in the whole system: ga...
Article
Artificial Ground Freezing technique is often used to build underground structures, such as urban tunnels. modeling activities are necessary to optimize the design of the freezing process. The paper introduces a numerical solution of the phenomenon of water freezing for various soil types, using the finite element method combined with the model ord...
Article
In operating rooms (OR), the transport of Colony-Forming Units (CFU) can generate surgical site infections in patients and, as a consequence, CFU must be properly evacuated from the surgical site. Moreover, fine particles (FP) and ultrafine particles (UFP) can be generated during surgeries by cutting and cauterizing surgical tools, with consequent...
Article
In this paper, the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) is presented for the solution of the parametric heat equation for an actual geothermal application. The physical domain is composed by ten geothermal probes inserted in the ground. The temperature profile along the probes is imposed as a parametric Dirichlet condition. The soil properties ar...
Article
Full-text available
The new standards on energy saving for new and existing buildings have animated both researchers and technicians in recent years, aiming at reducing the dependence on fossil fuels, improving indoor comfort, and systems efficiency. In this scenario, special attention must be paid to historical buildings that need to preserve their key testimonial he...
Article
Hospital Operating Rooms (ORs) are working spaces which demand an utmost clean air environment for enhancing both the safety and the comfort conditions of medical staff and patients, in order to reduce the risk of post-operative complications. In this context, an integrated experimental-numerical study has been carried out in the present work, to i...
Article
A numerical model of the solid/liquid phase change problem in porous media and free fluids is presented in this paper for the first time by employing a modified version of the generalized porous medium model, in 2D and 3D, solved by means of the Characteristic-Based-Split (CBS) scheme. The proposed procedure is based on the solution of one set of e...
Article
Air velocity and temperature distributions inside operating rooms (ORs) play a crucial role to reduce the risk of infections and to ensure adequate comfort conditions for patient and medical staff. In this work, the authors have developed a three-dimensional thermo-fluid dynamic model to simulate airflow and thermal comfort in an actual OR equipped...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of the present study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the three-dimensional (3D) heat and mass transfer model developed by the authors to investigate the Aqueous Humour (AH) flow and thermal fields in real human eyes. The Generalised Porous Medium (GPM) approach has been implemented to reproduce both cavities and porous tissues....
Article
Full-text available
The valorization of residual biomass plays today a decisive role in the concept of "circular economy", according to which each waste material must be reused to its maximum extent. The collection and energy valorization at the local level of biomass from forest management practices and wildfire prevention cutting can be settled in protected areas to...
Article
Full-text available
Domestic Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) are able to operate also when the wind speed is low and can be installed in the open spaces of housing areas. The Darrieus turbine is the most promising since it is characterized by higher efficiency, even if for applications at higher wind speeds with respect to Savonius VAWTs. Several researchers try to...
Article
Full-text available
The present study numerically and experimentally investigates, for the first time in the literature, the thermo-fluid dynamics and ultrafine particle (UFP) concentration in surgical smoke, with diameters smaller than 100 nm, inside an actual operating room (OR) equipped with a turbulent circular diffuser system. The velocity values and temperature...
Article
Full-text available
An artificial ground freezing (AGF) technique in the horizontal direction has been employed in Naples (Italy), in order to ensure the stability and waterproofing of soil during the excavation of two tunnels in a real underground station. The artificial freezing technique consists of letting a coolant fluid, with a temperature lower than the surroun...
Article
Full-text available
In this study, the sustainability of low-temperature geothermal field exploitation in a carbonate reservoir near Mondragone (CE), Southern Italy, is analyzed. The Mondragone geothermal field has been extensively studied through the research project VIGOR (Valutazione del potenzIale Geotermico delle RegiOni della convergenza). From seismic, geo-elec...
Article
Full-text available
Objective of the work is to investigate stress and deformation that corneal tissue and donor graft undergo during endothelial keratoplasty. In order to attach the donor graft to the cornea, different air bubble pressure profiles acting on the graft are considered. This study is carried out by employing a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element m...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The valorization of residual biomass plays a decisive role in the actual implementation of the concept of "circular economy", according to which each waste material must be reused at its highest level in order to reduce the impact of human activities on the biosphere. The Italian project "INNOVARE-Innovative plants for distributed poly-generation b...
Article
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems must be specifically designed for Operating theaters in hospitals, in order to reduce the risk of infections and maintain adequate thermo-hygrometric conditions. New design procedures of operating theaters can benefit from the results obtained by properly validated Computational Fluid Dynamic...
Conference Paper
This paper experiences the potential of the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a strategy to facilitate the energy performance analysis of existing buildings. In Italy, the relationship between BIM and sustainability is an emerging concept which is becoming more and more interesting in the construction industry. The literature provides...
Conference Paper
This paper experiences the potential of the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a strategy to facilitate the energy performance analysis of existing buildings. In Italy, the relationship between BIM and sustainability is an emerging concept which is becoming more and more interesting in the construction industry. The literature provides...
Conference Paper
This paper experiences the potential of the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a strategy to facilitate the design of mechanical plant. In Italy, the relationship between BIM and sustainability is an emerging concept which is becoming more and more interesting in the construction industry. In this paper, the authors show the geothermal e...
Article
Full-text available
The present work analyses the performance of four glaucoma drainage devices, by means of a novel patient‐oriented numerical procedure. The procedure is based on the three‐dimensional geometry reconstruction from the stacks of tomographic images of a human eye, at different angles, on meshing and on thermo‐fluid dynamics modelling activities, carrie...
Conference Paper
Geothermal energy plants allow both heating and cooling of buildings by using the ground as a renewable energy source. The present work shows the numerical results obtained for the recovery of the freezing probes used for the Artificial Ground Freezing (AGF) technique of the two tunnels between Line 1 and Line 6 of the new Metro station in Piazza M...
Conference Paper
A numerical investigation of electro-osmotic flow in water saturated porous media is presented. The aim of the work is to analyse the effectiveness of using electro-osmosis to drive flow through water saturated porous media. Electro-osmotic flow is studied by using two sets of equations, one for the reproduction of the electro-kinetic forces, and t...
Research Proposal
Full-text available
Position available for the Energy Science and Engineering PhD Program, at the Department of Engineering of the University of Napoli "Parthenope". The call for applications for the ESE PhD program can be downloaded at: https://www.uniparthenope.it/bando/bando-dottorato-xxxiv-ciclo. An english version of the call is available. Deadline for applica...
Article
Thermo active piles have been studied as an efficient solution to minimize greenhouse emissions and achieve economic advantages. So far, this technology has received only partial acceptance by the industry, because of the impact on the serviceability of the system in the long-term. The aim of this work is to perform a tool able to numerically inves...
Conference Paper
Artificial ground freezing (AGF) in a horizontal direction has been employed in Napoli (Italy) to ensure stability and waterproofing of the soil during excavation of tunnels connecting two lines of the Naples metro system. The artificial freezing technique consists in circulating a coolant fluid, with a temperature lower than that of the surroundin...
Article
The present work describes the application of the generalised porous medium model to study heat and fluid flow in healthy and glaucomatous eyes of different subject specimens, considering the presence of ocular cavities and porous tissues. The 2D computational model, implemented into the open-source software OpenFOAM, has been verified against benc...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the fluid dynamic performance of two Aqueous Humor (AH) ocular drainage devices, the SOLX® Gold Micro Shunt (GMS) and the novel Silicon Shunt Device (SSD), implanted by surgeons in human eyes to reduce the IntraOcular Pressure towards physiological values, by draining the AH from the Anterior Chambe...
Article
The aim of this paper is to present a novel device for heating the infusion fluids during vitrectomy surgery, to be used to avoid deep hypothermal conditions inside human eyes. The key aspect of the proposed device concerns its ability to control the temperature of infusion fluids and keep it within the mild hypothermia range, in order to reduce th...
Data
Taken from: A new model for the analysis of operating conditions of microcogenerative SOFC units, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 38, 336-344, 2013 (F. Arpino, M. Dell'Isola, D. Maugeri, N. Massarotti, A. Mauro). The dashed lines that connect the different subsystems in the Figure represent the fuel and air paths relative to the system s...
Data
The Figure shows the variation over time of the mean Nusselt number evaluated at the hot wall for different values of the Rayleigh number. It is clear from this Figure the presence of significant instabilities for Ra=5*10^5 that become much more evident for Ra=10^6.
Article
In this study consideration has been given to the two-dimensional, unsteady, laminar flow of an electrically conducting bio-fluid (blood) in a rectangular channel. In this model both magnetization and electrical conductivity of blood are taken into account. The viscosity of the fluid is also assumed to be a strong function of temperature. The coupl...
Article
Full-text available
This paper provides a sensitivity analysis on the influence of one porous layer insert on the transient behavior of natural convection in a tall annular enclosure in presence of large source terms. The porous medium which partially fills the cavity is characterized by a low value of the Darcy number, typical of insulating materials and metallic foa...
Article
Full-text available
A numerical investigation of heat and fluid flow in electro-osmotically driven systems is presented, by considering plain channels and channels packed with charged solid particles. The results show that the introduction of charged solid particles a_ects the internal potential distribution, fluid flow and temperature distribution in the channel. Und...
Article
Full-text available
The present paper deals with concept, prototyping and application of a tensioning system for FRP ties into masonry structures. The proposed system, based on the use of FRP strands instead of traditional steel ties, has the aim to produce a compression stress state on masonry walls where it is applied. Given the objective difficulty in tensioning a...
Article
Rheological behavior of silicone oils,(CH3)3SiO−[Si(CH3)2O]n−Si(CH3)3, and their mixtures is studied. Shear stress measurements, in the temperature range 293-313 K, reveal that this family of polymers are shear thinning liquids with a yield stress below which no flow occurs. Experimental diagrams, i.e. shear stress versus shear rate, are satisfacto...
Article
Geothermal energy piles allow both heating and cooling of buildings by using the ground as a renewable energy source. In this paper, the authors propose an efficient numerical model, based on a mixed 1D-3D approach, to analyze the heat transfer process in the coupled system probe-pile-ground. The numerical model developed allows to simulate the thr...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Fig. 1: Cross sections of the tunnel and details of the heat exchanger. [1] Colombo G., Il congelamento artificiale del terreno negli scavi della metropolitana di Napoli: valutazioni teoriche e risultati sperimentali, Rivista italiana di geotecnica.
Article
Full-text available
The numerical modeling of natural convection in partially porous annuli is a topic of rising interest, due to its practical applications for the provisional analyses of several engineering applications such as geothermal down-hole heat exchangers, chemical reactors, etc. Though a large number of papers focused on the modeling of this phenomenon und...
Article
Full-text available
The numerical modeling of natural convection in partially porous annuli is a topic of rising interest, due to its practical applications for the provisional analyses of several engineering applications such as geothermal down-hole heat exchangers, chemical reactors, etc. Though a large number of papers focused on the modeling of this phenomenon und...
Article
In the present paper, the authors present an idea to exploit low enthalpy geothermal energy in order to reduce street temperature fluctuations throughout the year and avoid ice formation during the winter season. The key aspect of the proposed system is that it is based on the exploitation of geothermal temperature gradients through materials with...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
A numerical investigation of Aqueous Humor (AH) flow in SOLX ® Gold Micro Shunt (GMS) and a novel Silicon Shunt Device (SSD) is presented, with the aim of reducing IntraOcular Pressure (IOP) for treatment of glaucoma. The generalised porous medium model is solved to simulate AH flow through the devices and the surrounding tissues. In the GMS, proba...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The use of geothermal pile foundations is an environmental friendly way to extract/storage energy from/in the ground. The operating principle of these innovative structures is based on energy transfer between the ground and the fluid flowing inside the probes inserted in the pile, in order to feed heat pumps dedicated to buildings heating and cooli...
Article
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the numerical analysis of transient free convection heat transfer in partially porous cylindrical domains. The authors analyze the dependence of velocity and temperature fields on the geometry, by analyzing transient flow behavior for different values of cavity aspect ratio and radii ratio; both in...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Recent studies on temperature control in biology and medicine have found the temperature as a new instrument in healthcare. In this manuscript, we reviewed the effects of temperature and its potential role in pars plana vitrectomy. We also examined the relationship between intraocular pressure, viscosity, and temperature in order to deter...
Article
Full-text available
The interest of calculating the effects of thermal bridges in buildings energy consumption is growing, due to recent energy saving regulations applied in different countries. The widespread use of insulating materials to reduce energy requirements of buildings, often employed for intermediate insulation of the building envelope, makes thermal bridg...
Article
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to optimize the performance of an incinerator plant in terms of NO emissions and temperature of particles 2 s after the last air injection, which must be above 850 degrees C as established from the Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council - December 4, 2000 on dioxins formation in was...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In this paper the authors present experimental and numerical investigations aimed at characterization of different operating conditions of an existing HERAmbiente S.p.A. waste-to-energy plant, located in Pozzilli, Italy. A 5-days experimental campaign has been conducted during which data from existing instrumentation installed on the combustion cha...