Tesi di Dottorato
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Item Development of a CAE-basedapproach for the concurrent design, manufacturing and testing of hybrid metal-composite spur gears(Università della Calabria, 2020-02-19) Catera, Piervincenzo Giovanni; Furgiuele, Franco; Mundo, Domenico; Treviso, AlessandraTrends in emission limitations and fuel efficiency impose a more efficient energy exploitation in many application fields of mechanical systems. In this direction, the lightweighting of mechanical structures represents a powerful strategy, above all in the transportation industry, where geared transmissions play a key role. Here, these components are designed in such a way that performance criteria are met at the minimum weight, without compromising the requirements of reliability and safety. In this context, the aim of the present work is the development of new strategies for the design of geared systems, where the concept of gear body lightweighting with geometrical modifications is substituted by the one applied to the material, in order to improve the strength-to-weight ratio and reduce vibrations in the overall mechanical system. In particular, the research is focused on innovative methods for the simulation, manufacturing and testing of a hybrid gear, in which a metal rim is joined with a composite body. In detail, the contribution of the gear body stiffness is studied by means of a multi-scale approach, which starts from the interaction between matrix and fibres at the micro-scale to derive the lamina properties at the macro-scale. In this way, the anisotropy of the composite material can be accounted for, leading to an accurate modelling and evaluation of the mechanical properties of the gear. Additionally, two assembly techniques are used for joining the rim part to the body, which include adhesive bonding and interference fitting. Both techniques are analysed with experimental modal tests to characterize dynamic stiffness and damping in comparison to a lightweight metal gear with the same mass. At the same time, non-linear finite element (FE) simulations are executed for the evaluation of the static transmission error and meshing stiffness. Finally, the last part of the work deals with the experimental analysis of a hybrid gear pair during meshing in a dedicated test-rig, where the dynamic behaviour is analysed with respect to the variation of applied torque and rotational velocity. Noise and vibration behaviour of a solid-hybrid gear pair is compared to that of a pair composed by a solid and a lightweight metal gear. Experimental results show the great potentiality of the multi-material approach in mechanical power transmissions.Item A Comprehensive analysis of hydrological benefits of low impact development techniques: experimental investigation and numerical modeling(Università della Calabria, 2020-03-05) Palermo, Stefania Anna; Furgiuele, Franco; Piro, PatriziaUrban floods, recently increasing due to the combine effect of climate change and urbanization, represent a potential risk to human life, economic assets and environment. In this context, the traditional urban drainage techniques seem to be inadequate for the purpose, therefore a transition towards an innovative sustainable and resilient urban stormwater management is a valid solution. One promising strategy is the implementation of decentralized stormwater controls, also known as Low Impact Development (LID) systems that provide several benefits at multiple scales. Despite several studies demonstrated the LIDs’ capability in terms of surface runoff reduction, the transition towards a sustainable urban drainage system, which includes these techniques, seems to be very slow. One of the key scientific limiting factors can be found in the lack of comprehensive analyses able to highlight the hydrological performance and the physical processes involved in LID systems at multiple spatial scale and by considering long-term experimental data. The complexity of the physical processes, involved in each specific LIDs stratigraphy, requires modeling tools able to accurately interpret their hydraulic behaviour, as well as to correlate their hydrologic efficiency with the management of stormwater in the surrounding urban area. For these reasons, so far different empirical, conceptual and mechanistic models have been proposed, however in many of these studies, the hydrological parameters, as well as the physical ones were not properly investigated, limiting the analysis only to specific factors, or by considering literature values for the numerical modeling. Thus, principal aim of this thesis is to present a comprehensive analysis of the hydrological benefits of LID techniques by experimental investigation and numerical modeling. To achieve this goal, several analyses were carried out by considering different: LID systems, spatial scales, weather conditions, modeling investigation, as well as mathematical optimization approaches. Monitored data at the full scale implementation and laboratory measurements were used to support the numerical modeling. More in detail, first a global sensitivity analysis (GSA), based on the Elementary Effect Test (EET) was applied to a PCSWMM hydrodynamic model of the University Campus Innsbruck, which combines traditional drainage infrastructures and low impact development techniques, as Rain Gardens. In this regard, main findings have showed that soil hydraulic parameters considered in the model, (i.e., principally Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Seepage Rate) were the most sensitive parameters. Therefore, the identification of these properties for LID systems is crucial in order to correctly evaluate their hydraulic performance. Starting from this finding the analysis of the hydrological efficiency of a full-scale extensive green roof, located at University of Calabria in Mediterranean Climate was assessed, by considering field monitored hydrological data, as well as soil hydraulic properties evaluated in lab, and a modeling analysis. Thus, first a field monitoring campaign for one year was carried out, and then hydrological performance indices on an event scale were evaluated. The findings have revealed the optimal behaviour of the specific green roof in Mediterranean climate, which presents an average value of Subsurface Runoff Coefficient of 50.4% for the rainfall events with a precipitation depth more than 8 mm. Later, to evaluate the influence of increasing values of substrate depths (6 cm, 9 cm, 12 cm, 15 cm) on green roof retention capacity, the hydraulic properties of the soil materials were first investigated in Laboratory, by the simplified evaporation method, and then considered for the implementation of the mechanistic model HYDRUS 1D. The results obtained in this phase have showed how the considered substrate depths were able to achieve a runoff volume reduction of 22% to 24%. Thus, as the outflow volume reduction achieved by increasing the soil depth was not significant, the ideal depth for specific soil substrate would be 6 centimetres. Following this study, and based on the findings obtained at building scale, next phase was focused on the analysis of hydrological effectiveness of Low Impact development solutions at largeurban scale in a south Italian case study. This investigation was carried out by considering different LID conversion scenarios by a predictive conceptual model (PCSWMM). In this regards, a specific permeable pavement and green roof, developed and installed at University of Calabria, were considered for the model implementation. Globally, modeling results have confirmed the suitability of these LID solutions to reduce surface runoff even if just a small percentage (30%) of the impervious surfaces is converted. By considering all of the findings, previous achieved by experimental and modelig investigation, it emerged that many aspects related to LIDs design and operation, as well as the choice of the facility and its location can affect the results in terms of hydraulic efficiency. In this regard, a mathematical optimization approach to consider several aspects together could be a suitable tool for designers of LID systems and experts in the field. Therefore, in the last part of the work, new Mathematical Optimization Approaches for LID techniques were evaluated. More in detail, the optimization of rainwater harvesting systems, by using TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and Rough Set method as Multi-Objective Optimization approaches, was carried out. The results have demonstrated that these approaches could provide an additional tool to identify the ideal system. In conclusion, main findings of this thesis confirm the suitability of LID systems for urban stormwater management providing useful suggestions for their design and tools for assessing their hydrological effectiveness, analysing physical and hydrological parameters that affect their operation, introducing advanced concepts for the optimization of LID systems, therefore providing a significant and innovative contribution for the improvement of scientific research in the field and the spread of these sustainable techniques.Item Toughening mechanisms and damage tolerance of bioinspired interfaces(Università della Calabria, 2020-03-06) Morano, Chiara; Furgiuele, Franco; Alfano, MarcoBiologically inspired designs were deployed into selective laser sintering of polyamide substrates to study the mechanics of adhesion and debonding of adhesive bonded structural interfaces. In particular, through extensive series of experiments and simulations, the present study covers the effect of hollow channels, mimicking the base plate of the Amphibalanus amphitrite, and of sinusoidal interfaces, resembling those observed in sutures joints, on the mechanics of crack propagation in adhesive bonds. A model material system comprising adhesively bonded 3D printed substrates in the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) configuration was selected for the analyses. Adhesive bonding and subsequent mechanical tests revealed the occurrence of a crack trapping effect, which hinders crack propagation and enhances energy dissipation with respect to the baseline interface. The use of bioinspired structures is shown to improve the performances of adhesive joints, enabling damage tolerance and, in the case of subsurface channels, also a weight reduction. Numerical simulations, carried out using finite element analysis (FEA) with interface elements, were also executed to gain a deep understanding of all mechanisms observed experimentally. The simulations were able to mimic the serrated behavior observed in experimental load-displacement responses, which was due to the snap-through interfacial cracking mechanism, i.e., a sudden and almost instantaneous growth of apparently stable cracks. Moreover, the mechanisms of fracture observed in the experiments (e.g., nucleation of a secondary crack at the interface) were reproduced with good accuracy in finite element simulations. The overall analysis demonstrates that is possible to improve joints effective fracture toughness by modifying joints architecture, even without any modification of adhesive type and/or interface properties (e.g., surface energy). This study further confirms that additive manufacturing represents a powerful platform for the experimental study of bio-inspired materialsItem Post-failure analysis of landslides using the material point method(Università della Calabria, 2020-03-05) Pugliese, Luigi; Furgiuele, Franco; Troncone, AntonelloSlope stability analysis is undoubtedly one of the most complex problems that civil engineers deal with. The evolution of deformation mechanisms of slopes is commonly schematized in four different stages: pre-failure, failure, post-failure and eventual reactivation. Traditional numerical methods, such as the finite element method and the finite difference method, are commonly employed to analyze the slope response in the pre-failure and failure stages under the hypothesis of small deformations. On the other hand, these methods are unsuitable for simulating the post-failure behavior due to the occurrence of large deformations. However, an adequate analysis of this latter stage and a reliable prediction of the landslide kinematics could be particularly useful for minimizing the associated risk or to establish the most suitable mitigation measures for land protection. Among the numerical techniques which have been recently developed to overcome the above-mentioned limitation, the material point method (MPM) is employed in this dissertation to analyze the post-failure stage of two real landslides: the Senise landslide (Basilicata) and the Maierato landslide (Calabria), both in Southern Italy, occurred in 1986 and 2010, respectively. The numerical analyses allow to faithfully simulate the real phenomena. In particular, with referring to the Senise landslide, the numerical analysis provides results that match satisfactorily well the field observations when both the slip surfaces detected by the installed inclinometers are accounted for. Besides, the lowest values of the shear strength parameters obtained from the laboratory tests have to be used. Moreover, an improvement of results is gained accounting for the presence of the existing structures as well. Concerning the Maierato landslide, symbol of the hydrogeological instability in Calabria (Southern Italy), the analysis performed using the material point method allows to successfully simulate the observed phenomenon, despite the complexity of this landslide regarding its size, catastrophic failure and long run-out distance. The obtained results demonstrate that an adequate analysis of the post-failure stage can lead to a better understanding of the complex mechanical mechanisms that characterize some landslides, and therefore help significantly to establish the most effective stabilization measures.Item Analysis of mechanical properties of cold spray coatings for tribological and vacuum applications(Università della Calabria, 2020-07-13) Magarò, Pietro; Furgiuele, Franco; Maletta, Carmine; Tului, MarioCold Gas Dynamic Spray (CGDS) is a process in which solid particle are accelerated in a de Laval nozzle toward a substrate. At the impact, if the particle velocity exceeds a critical value, i.e. the critical velocity, particles undergo plastic deformation and the consequent adiabatic shear instability provides material flow and heat for bonding. This phenomenon is the main driving force for the adhesion of the coating to the substrate. Compared other thermal spray techniques, since it utilizes kinetic rather than thermal energy for deposition, it offers several technological advantages; in fact, residual stresses, oxidation and chemical reactions can be avoided. Materials such as metals, ceramics, composites and polymers can be deposited using cold gas dynamic spray, creating new opportunities in order to obtain particular properties; in fact, good coatings using hard metals can be obtained with the purpose to enhance the tribological properties of such mechanical components. Therefore, the expected qualitative leap in using CGDS is magnified in harsh environments with great benefits predicted in design flexibility gains, precision improvements, production time reductions, cost reduction, integration of additional embedded functionalities. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the possibility to obtain good deposits of Stellite-6 with the aim to enhance the surface resistance during sliding condition, while mechanical and vacuum properties of pure titanium coatings were analyzed for possible application in ultra high vacuum (UHV) systems at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). This thesis, firstly, analyzes the effects of process parameters on mechanical and tribological properties of Stellite-6 coatings. The gas pressure and temperature as well as the traverse speed of the deposition torch were considered as significant process parameters. The aim is to overcome some technical issues arising in the cold spray deposition of hard anti-wear metallic coatings, such as Stellite-6, due to their high strength and melting point. A High-Pressure CGDS equipment was used and systematic studies were carried out for a deeper understanding of the effects of all investigated process parameters. A particular focus has been put on the substrate temperature, that can be regarded as an indirect process parameter. This latter, in fact, was monitored in-situ during deposition by infrared thermography (𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼). The microstructure was analyzed by both optical and scanning electron microscopic observations. Mechanical properties were analyzed by instrumented micro- and nano-indentation measurements. Hardness (𝐻𝐻) and Young's modulus (𝐸𝐸) were considered as affective parameters to estimate the inter-particle cohesion strength and the work hardening of the coating. Results revealed that the substrate temperature, that is affected by the process parameters, plays a fundamental role in the coating formation process, and, both mechanical and tribological properties, of CGDS Stellite-6 coatings are mainly affected by the impact temperature of the particle-substrate system. It is also well-known that this alloy undergoes several physical changes at the interface during dry sliding while is sensitive to the loading conditions and environment. Due to these micro-structural alterations, the wear behavior of the alloy is modified, which linear Archard-like wear models could not capture. To better understand the wear performance a Stellite-6 coatings in-situ, a mechanistic model of wear would be desirable, so a systematic experimental study was performed. Tests were done under combinations of sliding speed (0.1–0.5 𝑚𝑚/𝑠𝑠) and contact pressure (0,5–5 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀). Platelet wear and subsurface cracking was seen in high speed tests, as well as evidence of plastic deformation at the wear surface. These results suggest the platelet wear observed is more likely a consequence of adhesive wear. On the other hand, in low speed conditions detachment and pull-out phenomena mainly affect the worn surface of coatings leading to a type of fatigue wear known as “nano-grain wear” that does not allow to use the wear model proposed by Archard. Unique to this study, the cross-sectional nano-indentation study showed the stiffness of material at and below wear interface to drop significantly. The last section was aimed by the necessity to overcome some technical issues, usually experienced during pure titanium deposition. These latter are mainly related to poor coating compactness and adhesion to the substrates. These technical issues become even more stringent when dealing with vacuum systems as they could affect the leak tightness and gas release in UHV. Preliminary micrographic observations were carried out to select the optimal values of the process parameters, that are pressure (𝑝𝑝) and temperature (𝑇𝑇) of the propellent gas. Mechanical properties of deposits were subsequently analyzed at the nano/micro and macro scale by instrumented indentations and adhesion tensile tests respectively. Vacuum properties were analyzed by outgassing rate measurements, thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and helium tightness tests. Indentation results revealed that compact and homogeneous coatings can be obtained if high energy deposition parameters (𝑝𝑝~4 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀,𝑇𝑇~1000° 𝐶𝐶) are applied. However, a limited adhesion strength on stainless steel substrates is the main technical issue of the coating process. Outgassing and TDS tests revealed an abnormal nitrogen release that is attributed to gas entrapped during deposition or during the production stage of the Ti powders as N2 is used in the gas atomization process. Finally, helium leak rates were found to be incompatible with UHV requirements applied in modern particle accelerators. Much higher helium leak rates were detected along the interface between the coating and the substrate than through the thickness. These results confirm that the interface represents the weakest point of the bi-material system. Further studies are needed to solve this technical issue.Item Resilienza e rischio nella rilettura urbanistica dell'emergenza. Il ruolo della viabilità strategica(Università della Calabria, 2020-02-18) Gaudio, Sara; Furgiuele, Franco; Francini, MauroUrban systems are increasingly experiencing processes of evolution, change and transition. Therefore, there is an urgent need of identifying new planning approaches aimed at promptly responding to them. Over the years, the themes of risk and security have, more or less sponta-neously, contributed to direct the ways of governing the territories. However, the most recent crises have shown how many critical issues have remained unresolved. In this respect, new challenges have to be faced, especially in terms of emergency planning. Starting from a theoretical reflection on the current planning orientation and on the concept of urban resilience, this research tries to use a novel meth-odological approach with a view to provide a new characterisation to Emer-gency Plans, more spatial and not just operational. Following the need to identify some categories of relevant urban elements on the territory, the proposed performance-based framework offers a formal procedure for the detection of strategic road infrastructures. The obtained results allow to plan already in “peacetime” the best alternative routes to ar-rive safely in the areas established by Civil Protection in case of event and to facilitate rescue operations. Therefore, the analysis of the physical and functional relationships among different elements of the territory shifts the focus of emergency from a piece-meal approach to a more integrated one. This will be capable of addressing more consistently the future decisions concerning the urban structures, typi-cal of ordinary territorial planning.Item New one-line model for shoreline evolution at beaches composed of not cohesive grains of any size(2020-02-18) Francone, Antonio; Furgiuele, Franco; Tomasicchio, Giuseppe Roberto; Frega, Ferdinando;Over recent decades, efforts have been made to find robust methods for predicting shoreline evolution near to the coastal structures. This requires a rigorous understanding of the key coastal processes that drive sediment transport, and how they are impacted by the presence of structures. Once this understanding is reached, a method for predicting morphological shoreline evolution is required. In this context, numerical modelling plays an important role. A new one-line model for shoreline evolution at beaches composed of not cohesive grains of any size is proposed: the General Shoreline beach (GSb). GSb model is based on the one-line theory, for which it is assumed that the equilibrium beach profile remains unchanged (Dean, 1990), thereby allowing beach change to be described uniquely in terms of the shoreline position. The longshore sediment transport rate is estimated by means of a general formula/procedure (Tomasicchio et al., 1994; Lamberti and Tomasicchio, 1997; Tomasicchio et al., 2013; Tomasicchio et al., 2015) combining an energy flux approach with an empirical/statistical relationship between the waveinduced forcing and the number of moving units. The uniqueness of the proposed new one-line model consists in the possibility to simulate beach change, including the effects of coastal structures (i.e. groynes, detached breakwaters), at a mound composed of not cohesive grains of any size, from sand to rock units. Despite other existing models, the GSb model presents a calibration factor, KGSb solely and it has been calibrated and verified against field and laboratory data on sandy and mixed beach (sand and gravel) referring to simple groyne and detached breakwater (Ming and Chiew, 2000; Hamilton et al., 2001; Martin-Grandes et al., 2009; Medellin et al., 2018;). Optimal values of KGSb, valid for different types of not cohesive grains and coastal structures, have been reported. It is showed that the GSb model can be considered a reliable engineering tool to conduct morphodynamics studies. A demo version of the GSb model, for Mac and Windows systems, has been released for the scientific community and is available at www.scacr.eu.Item Shape Memory Alloy connectors for Ultra High Vacuum applications: a breakthrough for accelerator technologies(2017-06-29) Niccoli, Fabrizio; Furgiuele, Franco; Cedric, GarionThe design of tight connections for ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) systems is a key subject for vacuum technology. Design requirements become even more stringent when dealing with UHV beam-pipe coupling in high-energy particle accelerators, where reliability and safety are core issues. For this specific application, additional needs often arise: strict geometrical and/or space limitations, connection of dissimilar materials and installation in restricted access areas. The latter constraint is of major concern, especially in the new generation of high-energy particle accelerators such as the HL-LHC (High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider), which will be operational at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 2026. Owing to the increased proton-beam intensity and luminosity of the HL-LHC, radioactivity will be higher at some points than in the present LHC. The radiation exposure time of the technical personnel in some critical areas will be strictly controlled and minimized. The use of standard ConFlat® flanges (CF) or quick connect ConFlat® flanges (QCF) could result in significant design and operational/maintenance limitations. In particular, the mounting and dismounting of CFs are time-consuming due to the high number of bolts and lead to significant radiation doses incurred by operators. Conversely, QCFs can be installed more quickly, but they suffer from the requirement of more space and are unwieldy components comprising heavy stainless-steel chain clamps. Within this framework, Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) offer a unique possibility to generate tight connections and fast clamping/unclamping by remotely changing the temperature of the SMA junction unit; at the microscopic scale this occurs trough a reversible solid-state transformation between the parent austenitic phase and the product martensitic one. In this PhD work, SMAs were used to develop a new generation of vacuum tightening systems for accelerator beam-pipe coupling by exploiting their shape recovery capabilities and actuation principles. The proposed coupling system consists of a SMA ring and a sealing element to be placed at the SMA-vacuum chambers interface, i.e. a copper coating or a thin cylindrical aluminum/copper gasket. Commercial NiTiNb rings and NiTi sleeves ad-hoc developed by Intrinsic Devices Inc. (USA) based on CERN technical constraints were properly investigated. The rings show two-way shape memory effect remembering a contracted austenitic shape and an enlarged martensitic one. The thermomechanical properties of the selected SMAs were measured experimentally. The tightening performance of SMA rings, was studied for different values of the initial clearance between the SMA ring and the vacuum pipe. The contact pressure was estimated by both strain gauge (SG) measurements and by Digital Image Correlation (DIC), using an ad-hoc developed numeric procedure. A novel design method was proposed that involves numerical results, obtained from Finite Element (FE) simulations and a literature vacuum sealing model. Leak tightness tests were carried out to assess the sealing performance of the of SMA-based prototype UHV chambers even after ageing at room temperature and repeated thermal cycles. Irradiation tests on SMA-based prototype vacuum chambers (SMA absorbed dose > 100 kGy) was performed at CHARM (Cern High energy AcceleRator Mixed field) facility at CERN and the functional and leak tightness performance of the couplings was successfully verified afterwards. The main results revealed that the contact pressure is not significantly affected by the initial SMA ring-pipe assembly clearance due to the plateau in the stress-strain response of the material. Thermal dismounting and subsequent re-clamping is obtained by exploiting the two-way shape memory recovery capabilities of the alloys. Leak rate measurements showed that the constraints for UHV applications could be easily satisfied (leak rate < 10-10 mbar l s-1) even after multiple thermal cycles; this opens the possibility of remotely clamping/unclamping the tight couplers by well-defined temperature variations. The proposed SMA-based beam-pipe couplers can be installed without using any connection flange. They are smaller and lighter than CF and QCF devices currently used in UHV systems at CERN. These bolt-free SMA-based connectors could provide significant benefits in terms of installation-dismounting time, space occupancy, bi-material joining and, above all, possible remote thermal activation, obtainable, for example, with removable heating/cooling collars. Based on these results, possible applications in CERN accelerators have already been identified. A first use has been proposed for the ISOLDE (Isotope Separator On Line DEvice). A second application is the vacuum system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) between the two high-luminosity experiments (ATLAS and CMS) and the beam focusing-defocusing quadrupole magnets (frequently called inner triplets). Moreover, particle collimators are also critical devices of accelerator equipment. In all these applications, high-energy particles induce a large radioactivity and, consequently, personnel access is restricted. The use of SMA rings with remote clampingunclamping features could be beneficial to avoid contamination and irradiation of technical personnel. Finally, SMA coupling installations are already planned in the CLEAR test facility at CERN, which provides the electron beam for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) study.Item Occupants behavior influence on buildings energy performance. Investigations in residential and office buildings(2017-10-27) Mora Guerra, Dafni Yeniveth; Furgiuele, Franco; De Simone, MarilenaThe general objective of the research was to evaluate the main factors affecting the energy performance of buildings by considering both physical and occupancy variables. The research had two different approaches, one of them was regarding occupant behavior related to energy consumption in residential buildings and the other focused on the office buildings. The investigations were conducted by means of data collection and statistical analyses in existing residential buildings. Furthermore, different procedures for obtaining occupancy profiles were applied. Finally, a case of design and modeling of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings was developed in order to study the influence of occupancy in high efficient energy buildings. The results showed that different approaches of modeling occupancy can lead to considerable variations in building energy performance. In office buildings, the detection of occupancy was obtained by an experimental approach. First of all, the state of the art regarding the sensors and devices used for measuring and monitoring indoor parameters was defined. Successively, an experimental setup was created in an office of the University of Calabria in order to collect data on occupancy and energy consumption by means of sensors and manual observations. The criterion of sensor fusion was adopted. Data were processed by using different statistical techniques: clustering analysis, descriptive and stochastic elaborations. The results were models that can be used either to describe or predict occupancy profiles. Structure of this work The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction titled Occupant behavior in buildings, regarding occupant behavior and its relationship to the energy consumption in residential buildings, office buildings, and low energy buildings. At the end of this chapter a brief description of occupant behavior and energy simulation in buildings is presented. In the second chapter, Building occupancy is presented with a description concerning the occupancy sensing techniques used and general classification following different approaches. Residential buildings is the title of the third chapter in which we attempt to describe the objectives and main findings of three investigations regarding residential buildings and occupancy profiles definition by means of the development of cases of study. The title of the fourth chapter is Office buildings: the experimental study. It consists of the description of the experimental study realized at the University of Calabria in an office building. A description of the sensors and the monitored data were presented. The Office buildings: data analysis is the fifth chapter of the thesis, with the different approaches used to analyze experimental data. It begins with the statistical analysis and ends with the results of the modeling based on indoor environment measurements. The General conclusions is the last chapter of the thesis, with a review and discussion of the key contributions of this research workItem Modelli organizzativi e servizi ICT a supporto dello sviluppo sostenibile di sistemi agroalimentari e turistici locali(2018-05-04) Della Gala, Marco; Furgiuele, Franco; Volpentesta, Antonio Palmiro