1,683 research outputs found
Green buildings and design for adaptation: strategies for renovation of the built environment
The recent EU Directives 2010/31 and 2012/27 provide standards of nearly zero energy buildings for new constructions, aiming at a better quality of the built environment through the adoption of high-performance solutions. In the near future, cities are expected to be the main engine of development while bearing the impact of population growth: new challenges such as increasing energy efficiency, reducing maintenance costs of buildings and infrastructures, facing the effects of climate change and adjusting on-going and future impacts, require smart and sustainable approaches. To improve the capability of adaptation to dynamics of transformation, buildings and districts have to increase their resilience, assumed as ‘the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance’ (Wilson A., Building Resilience in Boston, Boston Society of Architects, 2013). This paper describes the research methodology, developed by the Department of Architecture, a research unit of Technology for Architecture, to perform the assessment of resilience of existing buildings, as well as the outcomes of its application within Bologna urban context. This methodology focuses on the design for adaptation of social housing buildings, aiming at predicting their expected main impacts (energy consumption, emissions, efficiency, urban quality and environmental sustainability) and at developing models for renovation
Is LaOFFeAs an electron-phonon superconductor ?
In this paper we calculate the electron-phonon coupling of the
newly-discovered superconductor LaOFFeAs from first-principles,
using Density Functional Perturbation Theory. For pure LaOFeAs, the calculated
electron-phonon coupling constant and logarithmic-averaged
frequency , give a maximum of 0.8 K, using the
standard Migdal-Eliashberg theory.
For the doped compounds, we predict even smaller coupling constants, due
to the strong suppression of the electronic Density of States at the Fermi
level. To reproduce the experimental , a 5-6 times larger coupling
constant would be needed.
Our results indicate that electron-phonon coupling is not sufficient to
explain superconductivity in the newly-discovered LaOFFeAs
superconductor, probably due to the importance of strong correlation effects
Experimental tests to recover the photovoltaic power by battery system
The uncertainty and variability of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) power plants within the power grid is an open issue. The
present study focuses on the use of batteries to overcome the limitations associated with the photovoltaic inverter operation,
trying to maximize the global energy produced. A set of switches, was placed between a few photovoltaic modules and a
commercial inverter, capable to change configuration of the plant dynamically. Such system stores the power that the inverter is
not able to let into the grid inside batteries. At the base of this optimization, there is the achievement of two main configurations
in which the batteries and the photovoltaic modules are electrically connected in an appropriate manner as a function of inverter
efficiency and thus solar radiation. A control board and the relative program, to change the configuration, was designed and
implemented, based on the value of the measured radiation, current, batteries voltage, and calculated inverter efficiency. Finally
from the cost and impact analysis we can say that, today the technology of lithium batteries, for this application, is still too
expensive in comparison with lead-acid batteries
Five minutes with Tito Boeri: “We don’t just need a welfare state in Europe, we also need a welfare union”
Are Europe’s welfare states fit to meet the demands brought on by the financial crisis? In an interview with EUROPP’s Managing Editor Stuart Brown, Tito Boeri discusses the need for a ‘stress test’ of the European welfare state, why citizens in southern European countries have been much more susceptible to poverty during the crisis, and the role that EU cooperation should play in providing a more effective safety net for European citizens
Functional renormalization group study of an eight-band model for the iron arsenides
We investigate the superconducting pairing instabilities of eight-band models
for the iron arsenides. Using a functional renormalization group treatment, we
determine how the critical energy scale for superconductivity depends on the
electronic band structure. Most importantly, if we vary the parameters from
values corresponding to LaFeAsO to SmFeAsO, the pairing scale is strongly
enhanced, in accordance with the experimental observation. We analyze the
reasons for this trend and compare the results of the eight-band approach to
those found using five-band models.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Elemental Phosphorus: structural and superconducting phase diagram under pressure
Pressure-induced superconductivity and structural phase transitions in
phosphorous (P) are studied by resistivity measurements under pressures up to
170 GPa and fully crystal structure and superconductivity
calculations up to 350 GPa. Two distinct superconducting transition temperature
(T) vs. pressure () trends at low pressure have been reported more
than 30 years ago, and for the first time we are able to reproduce them and
devise a consistent explanation founded on thermodynamically metastable phases
of black-phosphorous. Our experimental and theoretical results form a single,
consistent picture which not only provides a clear understanding of elemental P
under pressure but also sheds light on the long-standing and unsolved
superconductivity trend. Moreover, at higher pressures we predict a
similar scenario of multiple metastable structures which coexist beyond their
thermodynamical stability range. Metastable phases of P experimentally
accessible at pressures above 240 GPa should exhibit T's as high as 15 K,
i.e. three times larger than the predicted value for the ground-state crystal
structure. We observe that all the metastable structures systematically exhibit
larger transition temperatures than the ground-state ones, indicating that the
exploration of metastable phases represents a promising route to design
materials with improved superconducting properties.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
The Redevelopment of The Heritage of Social Housing in Italy: Survey and Assessment Instruments. The Case Study of Pilastro Neighborhood in Bologna
Abstract The increasing importance of social housing in order to deal with the emergency caused by the pressing demand, places in the foreground the need to redevelop the existing public housing heritage. The paper proposes the deepening of one case study, the Pilastro neighborhood, a significant example of social housing high density settlement, situated in the outskirts of Bologna in order to brought out the technical, functional and social factors, on which the level of quality of the settlement and the phenomena of social uneasiness depend. It also highlighted some factors that may pose a resistance to the measures of improvement
Reversibility and Durability as Potential Indicators for Circular Building Technologies
According to the Circularity Gap Report 2020, a mere 8.6% of the global economy was circular in 2019. The Global Status Report 2018 declares that building construction and operations accounted for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy–related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The Paris Agreement demands that the building and construction sector decarbonizes globally by 2050. This requires strategies that minimize the environmental impact of buildings and practices extending the lifecycle of their constituents within a circular resource flow. To ensure that effective measures are applied, a suitable method is needed to assess compliance in materials, processes, and design strategies within circular economy principles. The study’s assumption is that synthetic and reliable indicators for that purpose could be based on reversibility and durability features. The paper provides an overview of building design issues within the circular economy perspective, highlighting the difficulty in finding circular technologies which are suitable to enhance
buildings’ service life while closing material loops. The results identify reversibility and durability as potential indicators for assessing circular building technologies. The next research stage aims to further develop the rating of circularity requirements for both building technologies and entire buildings
"PROXIMITY" AS A DESIGN STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE, COLLABORATIVE AND INCLUSIVE URBAN PUBLIC SPACES
Public spaces at neighbourhood scale represent the main scenario of citizens’ life, nodes that define an archipelago of places with a key role in promoting and fostering the enhancement and maintenance of the built environment through mutual collaboration. This network of open and built spaces traces the reference infrastructure of urban planning and redevelopment models, based on proximity as device for physical and social relationship, central in the post-pandemic city debate.
“The city of proximity” is the first focus addressed by the Atelier of Urban Innovation Lab in Bologna: an exhibition and laboratory space for comparison and co-design of public space, housed inside the City Hall of the Italian metropolitan city of Bologna and co-curated by the Department of Architecture, University of Bologna and the city agency Foundation for the Urban Innovation.
The Atelier explores urban dynamics and contemporary challenges using analogue and digital tools investigating the potential of the ecosystem defining the realm of the everyday dynamics – for instance, squares, courtyards, markets, libraries, urban gardens, playgrounds, sport equipment, etc. In addition to the physical transformations linked to the concept of proximity, the design process, the actors involved and the results obtained are considered relevant.
This paper, framing the topic on transition city issues, addresses the potential, transversal andrecurrent features of neighborhood spaces with the aim of acknowledging replicable strategies and design practices for collaborative cities based on new form of citizen democracy that encourage the reactivation of places, community creation, resilience to climate change and sustainable mobility, as
experimented by the lab-like environment of Urban Innovation Lab Bologna
A combined experimental and computational study of the pressure dependence of the vibrational spectrum of solid picene C_22H_14
We present high-quality optical data and density functional perturbation
theory calculations for the vibrational spectrum of solid picene
(CH) under pressure up to 8 GPa. First-principles calculations
reproduce with a remarkable accuracy the pressure effects on both frequency and
intensities of the phonon peaks experimentally observed . Through a detailed
analysis of the phonon eigenvectors, We use the projection on molecular
eigenmodes to unambiguously fit the experimental spectra, resolving complicated
spectral structures, in a system with hundreds of phonon modes. With these
projections, we can also quantify the loss of molecular character under
pressure. Our results indicate that picene, despite a \sim 20 % compression of
the unit cell, remains substantially a molecular solid up to 8 GPa, with phonon
modes displaying a smooth and uniform hardening with pressure. The Grueneisen
parameter of the 1380 cm^{-1} a_1 Raman peak () is much lower
than the effective value () due to K doping. This is an
indication that the phonon softening in K doped samples is mainly due to charge
transfer and electron-phonon coupling.Comment: Replaced with final version (PRB
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