Shot-Earth for an Eco-friendly and Human-Comfortable Construction Industry (eBook)

This book presents an innovative and environmentally friendly type of excavated earth-based building material, called Shot-Earth. The use of a common excavated earth as a construction material (both for structural and non-structural applications) has many important advantages, the main one being that the soil can be used as a zero kilo and zero cost material, being used in the same place where it is excavated. This volume collects the main results obtained by the research units in the FIRS2019-00245 research project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (MUR) and dedicated to the study of Shot-Earth materials. Many of the exposed contributions concern the optimization of the mixture and application technique, which consists in the application of the mixture sprayed on a support (that serves as formwork), with or without reinforcements, by using a pressure pipe (that is by a high-speed projection). This new construction technique allows to quickly realise a variety of structural systems, even with a complex geometry (like vaults, arches, shells, tunnel coatings, underground tanks, waterproofing of walls for landfills and waste storages, slope stabilization, etc.).  An additional feature of Shot-Earth is that it can be used to realise high energy-efficient buildings. In particular, this innovative technology can improve the capacity of a building to auto-regulate its interior heat and humidity, increasing indoor environment quality and energy performance and reducing building gas emissions.

Angelo Marcello Tarantino is professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Expert in theory of elasticity and structural engineering, he is author of textbooks and 120 scientific publications in international journals.

Franco Cotana is professor of Industrial Applied Physics at the Department of Engineering of the University of Perugia and founder and director of the National Research Center on biomass. He is the author of more than 300 scientific publications on energy, environment, sustainable develop and thermos-physical properties of new materials.

Marco Viviani is professor of sustainable and concrete construction at the Haute école d'ingegnerie et de géstion du Canton Vaud Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale, Yerdon-Les-Bains  (Heig-VD / HES-SO).  Expert in structural engineering and material science he is active in the development and modeling of  innovative sustainable construction materials and structures.