Francesco Asdrubali

Francesco Asdrubali
University for Foreigners Perugia | UNISTRAPG · Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali Internazionali

Civil Engineering

About

344
Publications
260,655
Reads
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10,176
Citations
Introduction
Editor in Chief of Building Acoustics https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/building-acoustics/journal202470 Editor of Noise Mapping http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/noise?rskey=5woYLL&onlyResultQuery=noise%20mapping Member of the Management Committee of the Cost Action DENORMS https://denorms.eu/ Coordinator of various EU projects: - NADIA, EU LIFE+ - MACCSol, EU 7FP - MUSAE, EU LIFE+ Director of CIRIAF, a National Research Centre in the field of Environment, 2004-2013
Additional affiliations
February 2016 - September 2023
Roma Tre University
Position
  • Professor (Full)
July 2015 - January 2016
Roma Tre University
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
November 2002 - June 2015
University of Perugia
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
Education
November 1991 - November 1994
November 1985 - November 1990
University of Perugia
Field of study

Publications

Publications (344)
Article
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There is a considerable number of research publications on the characterization of porous media that is carried out in accordance with ISO 10534-2 (International Standards Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2001) and/or ISO 9053 (International Standards Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1991). According to the Web of ScienceTM (last accessed 22 Se...
Article
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The present paper reports a socio-acoustic survey carried out in three large urban parks in Rome, selected on the basis of the outcome of a preliminary on-line survey. According to the experimental protocol applied in a previous study carried out in Milan and Naples, binaural recordings in 85 sites and interviews to 266 users of the three parks wer...
Article
Despite its low enthalpy content, sewage water from civil buildings could represent an interesting source for energy saving, especially when heating and cooling is supplied by heat pumps. A complete prototype plant was realized to assess the characteristics and performance of heat recovery from civil wastewater, used as ancillary thermal supply to...
Article
Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in buildings is usually performed at the envelope scale, mainly for comparison of several sample-solutions, and provides in-depth analyses of the related energy and environmental performances. In this way, it is possible to identify those solutions that perform best in energy and environmental terms, and t...
Article
Energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are actual key issues in all the economic sectors and, in particular, in buildings which is acknowledged worldwide as one of the most energy-consuming. In this context, it would be desirable to duly address those issues by searching for and assessing proper solutions and strategies: th...
Preprint
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Research on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is being conducted in various sectors, from analyzing building materials and components to comprehensive evaluations of entire structures. However, reviews of the existing literature have been unable to provide a comprehensive overview of research in this field, leaving scholars without a definitive guideline...
Article
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Direct and indirect approaches can be employed for estimating the heat flow through components in different application fields. In the building sector, the thermometric method is often applied by professionals for thermal transmittance evaluations. However, miscalculations can derive from inaccurate total heat transfer coefficients, and a consensus...
Article
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Determining whether a large sports event is sustainable or not is one of the main objectives of the sports industry in the coming years. Indeed, there are several sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a sports event that are not directly controlled by the sports companies but are linked to the event itself. The literature does not offer...
Conference Paper
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In situ tests are suitable to confirm the real thermal performance of building components, and several significant on-site measurement techniques have been studied in literature. However, among them the Thermometric (THM) method has been poorly examined by the scientific community, thus having opportunities for improvement, being a quite a new and...
Article
Resoconto del Seminario AIA "L'evoluzione del controllo delle vibrazioni: smart sensor networks & industry 4.0" Il 28 marzo a Torino, si è tenuto il Seminario "L'evoluzione del controllo delle vibrazioni: smart sensor networks & Industry 4.0", presso l'Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM). Il seminario è stato organizzato dall'Associaz...
Article
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Urban areas can be characterized by higher outdoor air temperatures than rural ones due to the well-known Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. This significantly affects buildings energy performance, thus influencing energy needs in terms of cooling and heating. Starting from this, the UHI in Rome was here investigated, providing an updated estimati...
Article
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This study examined the atmospheric urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon within the city of Rome (Italy) and its effects on building energy demand. Weather data from 2020 and 2022 collected from six meteorological stations were considered. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to analyze the landscape, correlating the percentage of impermeab...
Article
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In questo saggio affrontiamo il tema dei consumi energetici nelle 155 zone urbanistiche di Roma. I consumi più elevati sono nella città ricca e nella città- campagna. I consumi più bassi sono invece nella città compatta (sia perché gli alloggi hanno mediamente dimensioni minori, sia perché l'edilizia di tipo intensivo riduce il fabbisogno energetic...
Article
The significance of on-site measurements for the thermal characterization of building components is widely recognized. Walls thermal performance can be identified through the widely used Heat-Flow Meter (HFM) method, which has been frequently applied in literature. However, only a few scientific works have examined the convergence criteria suggeste...
Article
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Recent research has been developed by different groups towards the development of sonic crystals as noise barriers. The present paper aims to contribute to this research, focusing on the possible application of this technology in practice, and exploring some aspects that may be useful for its further development. One of the objectives of this work...
Article
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Recently there has been a growing interest to implement a holistic approach to study perception in urban settings with historic value, in which environmental factors such as acoustics and lighting play an important role. However, little research has addressed sound and light in combination. In this exploratory field study, a soundscape and lightsca...
Article
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Noise exposure may cause auditory and extra-auditory effects. School teachers and students are exposed to high noise levels which have an impact on perceptual-cognitive and neurobehavioral aspects. The latter influence teaching conditions and student school performance. A Protocol was defined and parameters to be investigated were identified for ac...
Article
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The growing attention to sustainability and life cycle issues by European and international policies has recently encouraged the adoption, in the construction sector, of environmental labels able to quantify the impacts on environment associated with the fabrication of several building materials, e.g., their embodied energy and carbon. Within this...
Article
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During the last decades, attention to energy and environmental problems has significantly grown, along with the development of international and national policies addressing sustainability issues. In the construction sector, one of the most widespread energy efficiency strategies consists of thermal insulation of buildings thanks to external insula...
Article
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Event business is constantly growing in frequency and size, attracting people from nearby areas and different countries as well. Transportation plays a key role in a successful event, especially for major ones, where the large number of participants requires ad hoc designing of event mobility and might include implementation of new infrastructures....
Article
Geothermal is a very promising renewable energy, which differently from variable renewable energies is independent of external/climate conditions and can cover both power and heat demands. Nonetheless, albeit these advantageous characteristics, traditional geothermal power plants may have not negligible environmental impacts: these range from emiss...
Conference Paper
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Over the last years several studies have demonstrated how the same environment can lead to different perceptual outcomes if the surrounding sounds change. Soundscape studies promote a user-centred approach for the characterization and management of acoustic environments in cities. There are several available protocols to gather perceptual data abou...
Article
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In recent years, experimental tests related to building components through laboratory facilities have relatively matured. The techniques are based on one-dimensional heat transfer by creating a permanent temperature difference over a specimen to control heat fluxes. The three main methods are the Guarded Hot Box (GHB) method, the Calibrated Hot Box...
Article
Acoustic metamaterials (AMMs) have become so far a resourceful solution for standard materials’ physical limitations, and their tuneable acoustic properties have shown potential for noise reduction and absorption over standard materials. At the same time, the building’s features’ ergonomics value has been discovered to play a key role in indoor wel...
Article
In this work, a Guarded Hot Box (GHB) was employed to evaluate the effects of environmental boundary conditions on the internal surface thermal resistance of a wall. For this purpose, the study was carried out through an experimental setup to measure temperature - surface and ambient - in the two chambers of the GHB and air velocity near the specim...
Article
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La presente ricerca è finalizzata a definire un modello per valutare le emissioni di gas climalteranti di un'intera flotta veicolare, in ottica di ciclo di vita, in funzione dei risultati di specifiche simulazioni di traffico. Sulla base del calcolo dell'impatto di ciclo di vita delle diverse categorie di veicoli circolanti e sulla base del flusso...
Article
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Ma cosa è esattamente un'isola di calore urbana (Urban Heat Island, UHI) [1]? Si tratta della formazione di microclimi all'interno delle aree urbane in grado di generare l'aumento delle temperature rispetto alle zone rurali limitrofe. Questo incremento avviene con maggiore intensità in settori urbani più densamente edificati. L'isola di calore urba...
Article
Green building concept plays a fundamental role in reducing the use of resources and the impacts on human health and environment, during the whole building life cycle. Therefore, a method to measure the building sustainability rate is crucial for comparing various alternatives in terms of use of different materials, energy resources, production pro...
Article
The Heat flow Meter (HFM) method is a non-destructive technique used to evaluate the thermal transmittance (U-value) without damaging walls when the stratigraphy is unknown. However, not all walls have an optimal orientation to perform HFM measurement. Walls facing north are certainly desirable to exclude solar radiation effects. Nevertheless, ther...
Article
It is known that energy efficiency passes through the renovation of the built heritage. However, the technical data may be unknown, thus applying not always suitable assumptions. Documents may have been lost and uncertainties may occur. In this context, the description of multilayer walls through equivalent models could solve the information lack i...
Article
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Climate change (CC) is predominantly connected to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the construction sector. It is clear how it is necessary to rethink construction materials in order to reduce GHG emissions. Among the various strategies proposed, recent research has investigated the potential of smart materials. This study in particular aims to...
Article
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The construction sector is one of the most energy-intensive in the industrialized countries. In order to limit climate change emissions throughout the entire life cycle of a building, in addition to reducing energy consumption in the operational phase, attention should also be paid to the embodied energy and CO 2 emissions of the building itself. T...
Conference Paper
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Il progetto nasce dalla collaborazione tra University College London (UCL) e Università degli Studi Roma Tre. Il progetto è finanziato tramite i Cities Partnerships Programme Funds, promossi dall'UCL Global Engagement Office. L'obiettivo è approntare una proposta metodologica per il paesaggio sonoro e luminoso, con applicazione in un caso studio pr...
Article
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In this paper, a procedure for the detection of the sources of industrial noise and the evaluation of their distances is introduced. The above method is based on the analysis of acoustic and optical data recorded by an acoustic camera. In order to improve the resolution of the data, interpolation and quasi interpolation algorithms for digital data...
Article
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An extensive and updated review of 223 values about the embodied energy and carbon of building insulation materials, mainly retrieved from 156 Environmental Product Declarations, is proposed with attention to innovative and emerging insulation materials. Comparative analyses were carried out thanks to the adoption of the same functional unit (1m² w...
Article
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Among the super insulating materials, aerogel has interesting properties: very low thermal conductivity and density, resistance to high temperatures and transparency. It is a rather expensive material, but incentives in the field can improve its economic attractiveness. Starting from this, the thermal behavior of a test building entirely insulated...
Article
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In this study, convective heat transfer phenomena were investigated by means of a Guarded Hot Box (GHB) apparatus. An experimental setup characterized by air and surface temperature probes, and a hot-wire anemometer was used. Five small fans were installed in the metering chamber to generate a forced air flow characterized by different velocity val...
Article
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The majority of Italian schools (70%) were built in the absence of any legislation related to energy efficiency, and therefore have very low energy performance due to aging or poor quality of construction. An energy retrofit of this building stock is needed to meet the current European goals on greenhouse gas emission reduction. The retrofit is als...
Article
This paper introduces a review on sustainability-related concepts at a neighbourhood scale. 3909 abstracts of papers on "neighbourhood sustainability" published between the late eighties and February 2020 were down-loaded from Scopus in order to perform a text mining analysis. The concept of neighbourhood sustainability is studied and discussed at...
Article
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Green Houses Gases (GHG) are negatively influencing the climate, increasing the Global Warming (GW) of the planet. Improving the energy performance of buildings is one of the main strategies that have to be adopted as soon as possible. In this contest, “Super Insulation Materials” (SIM) have been recently developed. The paper fits into this framewo...
Article
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Life Cycle Analysis applications in the construction sector are growing due to the increased importance of embodied components in low energy buildings. In this study, standard building reference scenarios were compared with highly efficient building typologies, classified as low-energy or nearly Zero Energy Buildings. Energy consumptions were simul...
Article
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Green roofs have a thermal insulating effect known since ancient times. In the building sector, green roofs represent a sustainable passive solution to obtain energy savings, both during winter and summer. Moreover, they are a natural barrier against noise pollution, reducing sound reflections, and they contribute to clean air and biodiversity in u...
Article
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The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is strictly related to climate changes and urban development. During summer, in urban areas, the lack of green zones and water sources causes local overheating, with discomfort and negative effects on buildings’ energy performance. Starting from this, an experimental and numerical investigating of the climatic...
Article
Construction is considered as one of the most relevant sectors in terms of environmental impacts, due to the significant use of raw materials, fossil energy consumption and the consequent Greenhouse Gases emissions. The use of unconventional and environmentally-friendly materials and technologies is worldwide recognised as a key factor to enable th...
Article
The European Union has committed itself to reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this goal, the European Green Deal is focused on energy efficiency and the decarbonization of the building stock. The implementation of energy saving measures in old buildings is one of the most effective strategies, but this needs the comprehension...
Article
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The research presented in this paper is focused on the definition of a new methodology for evaluating how illuminated crosswalks influence drivers’ behavior when approaching the zebra in nighttime conditions. The proposed methodology is based on in situ speed measurements, and cars’ speed was detected in an urban road segment of the city of Rome wi...
Article
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Building performance is strongly influenced by the performance of their structural parts, consequently affecting annual energy demands. The thermal characterization of building components can be achieved thanks to the knowledge of their internal layers and the thermal properties of each material. Considering existing buildings, technical data may b...
Article
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In the building sector, both passive and active systems are essential for achieving a high-energy performance. Considering passive solutions, green roofs represent a sustainable answer, allowing buildings to reach energy savings, and also reducing the collateral effect of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. In this study, a roof-lawn system was...
Article
This work aims at investigating the existence of an optimal solution from the life cycle energy point of view of an autonomous building. The life cycle energy demand of a building can be divided into three parts: the operational energy, the embodied energy and the end-of-life one. The introduction of renewable energy resources generally causes a sh...
Article
Abstract Nowadays, Zero Energy Buildings (ZEBs) and Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) can be achieve on one hand through the new construction, on the other hand, by implementing significant retrofit interventions on the existing buildings, both by means of active and passive strategies. In particular, among the existing passive strategies, gree...
Article
Understanding the thermal performance of building envelopes and of their components is a critical issue under energy saving and sustainability points of view. High performance buildings are commonly characterized by passive solutions able to avoid overheating during summertime or to take advantage of solar radiation during wintertime. This study pr...
Article
Walls thermal characterization is fundamental for the evaluation of the energy performance of buildings and for the energy certification practice and simulations. The evaluation of the thermal characteristics of building walls can be achieved through mathematical calculations (when the stratigraphy is known, and technical data are available) or non...
Article
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Most of the developed countries are struggling to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere to meet the international agreements. One of the strategies to reduce climate change impacts is the decarbonisation of the electricity production: generation mixes are more and more based on renewable energy sources that are replacing the traditional fossi...
Article
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Zero Energy Buildings (ZEBs) and nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) can be designed from scratch or they can be obtained after deep refurbishments of existing constructions. Both passive and active strategies are fundamental to achieve the ZEB or nZEB target. According to this, among passive systems, green roofs can be a viable solution because t...
Article
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Building energy performance has a key role in the international energy scenario. Labelling procedures have been developed in several countries for certifying the environmental sustainability of buildings, aiming at reducing energy consumptions and environmental impacts. In this study, the impacts of the insulating materials on the energy and enviro...
Article
The need to put in place alternative energy policies stems from the awareness that fossil fuels are exhaustible and harmful to the environment. For this reason, during the last decades the scientific world has focused on systems able to use and convert renewable energy sources, particularly solar radiation. Nowadays, solar thermal collectors use so...
Article
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This paper presents a model to evaluate the life cycle greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq), of a generic fleet composition as a function of the traffic simulation results. First we evaluated the complete life cycle of each category of the vehicles currently circulating; next, by defining a gener...
Article
This paper presents the results of a Carbon Footprint (CF) study of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and their environmental impact on the transportation network. By assuming that fully AVs are battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with connectivity, light detection and ranging sensors, this study measures the environmental impact at the urban mobility level....
Article
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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently released technical specifications about minimum reporting requirements in soundscape studies and methods for data collection (ISO/TS 12913-2:2018). The document provides an informative annex with three alternative methods: two are based on soundwalks and questionnaires, whilst the th...
Chapter
Eco-materials employed to reduce noise are used either independently or as components of complex composite materials, which are a growing area of research. These eco-materials have the potential to be used as high-performance sound-absorbing noise isolators in a number of applications in areas such as transportation, architectural, industrial, and...
Article
The characterization of thermal insulation properties of construction materials represents a fundamental step on the building insulation assessment. In recent years innovative materials have been introduced in the market to fulfill the continuously growing requirements of energy saving and sustainability, and their performance is not so reliable an...