A Fluid-Structure Interaction tool for the protection of Clean Energy Production sites (FSI-CEP)

Water represents a source of concern for anthropological activities and infrastructures. In recent years, the effects of climate change are increasingly becoming more evident, generating situations in which direct contact or proximity to water can endanger the safety of people, the survival of economic activities, and the integrity of structures of strategic interest, such as those for energy production. This also holds for those activities located in proximity to low coastal lines. In fact, they may be affected by flooding due to sea waves generated by sea storms, or, given the high seismicity of the national territory and of the surrounding marine areas, possible tsunami. Similar hazard can be hypothesized along rivers and streams, which, following vast and sudden rainfall, can cause flooding, with serious damage to cities and economic, agricultural and industrial activities.

In this context, attention must be paid to structures of strategic interest in direct contact with water, as protective barriers, dams, or offshore platform for wind turbines. Such structures are particularly exposed to hazards deriving from sea or lake waters, such as dynamic impulse, or chemical actions, which lead to corrosive effects and damage enucleation and propagation.

Interaction between water and structures is at the center of the present research project. On the one hand, we aim at evaluating the impact of water on structures, through the quantification of the hazard to which such structures are exposed. On the other hand, we want to monitor structures under extreme load conditions, i.e. under impulsive mechanical load conditions, or under effects of corrosion due to long contact with salty water. Finally, we aim to monitor the structural behaviour and predict damage evolution and degradation. The instruments for such investigation are advanced applications of continuum mechanics, such as applications of fluid-solid interaction, fracture mechanics, mechano-diffusion among others.

When studying the structural performances of materials and structures in a severe environment, a large class of phenomena has to be taken into account, including the deterioration of elastic solids resulting from microscale processes as nucleation, growth, and coalescence of microcracks, promoted by mechanical loads and by the presence of a solute diffusing within the solid. These phenomena are relevant to many other real applications like lithium-ion batteries, where lithium-ion diffusion in solid anodes takes place, hydrogen embrittlement of metals, which consists of metals becoming brittle as a result of the introduction and diffusion of hydrogen, intercalation-induced magnetism in non-magnetic bulks, diffusion of water into dentin adhesive polymers, which is linked to their mechanical softening and hydrolytic degradation, and many others.

Research units

• University of Naples “Federico II” – Principal investigator: Marialaura Di Somma
• University of Sassari – Responsible of the research unit: Emilio Barchiesi
• University of Cagliari – Responsible of the research unit: Victor Eremeev

Call
Bando PRIN 2022 PNRR

Project duration
24 months

Main ERC field
PE - Physical Sciences and Engineering

ERC subfields

• PE8_3 Civil engineering, architecture, offshore construction, lightweight construction, geotechnics
• PE8_5 Fluid mechanics

Keywords
Fluid Structure Interaction, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Damage model, Nonlocal damage, Clean energy production