Research | Laboratory of Roads, Railways and Airports (LabSFA)

Presentation

The laboratory of Roads, Railways and Airports was set up in 2016 mainly as a teaching laboratory to support the teaching activities of the courses of "Fundamentals of Road Design and Construction" for the Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering and in Land and Environmental Civil Engineering, and of "Roads, Railways and Airports" for the Master's Degree in Civil Engineering; as well as for internship and thesis activities using advanced software available in the disciplinary scientific sector CEAR-03/A (Roads, railways and airports) of the University of Salerno.

In 2022, the heavy laboratory of Roads, Railways and Airports was completed with the acquisition of the equipment designed to perform experimental dynamic tests on bituminous conglomerate used in road pavements.

The laboratory staff consist of:

• Ciro Caliendo: full professor and director of the laboratory (ORCID / Scopus / IRIS);
• Isidoro Russo: junior researcher (ORCID / Scopus / IRIS);
• Gianluca Genovese: research fellow (ORCID / Scopus / IRIS).

Video presentation of the laboratory

Equipment

The teaching laboratory is located on the 3rd floor of the building E of the University of Salerno. It has five networkable computer stations, a plotter, two printers, and a scanner. Each computer station, in addition to the Office package, is equipped with specific software for road design (Strato), design of road pavement structures (Bisar), risk analysis of vehicles carrying dangerous goods (DG-QRAM), traffic macro-simulation (PTV Visum), statistical analysis of road accident data (LIMDEP and OpenBUGS), fluid dynamics simulation of tunnel fire scenarios (FDS) and hydrogen release (Ansys-Fluent), simulation of people evacuation process (Evac), and Autocad.

The heavy laboratory for performing experimental dynamic tests on road asphalt mixtures is located on the ground floor of the Salerno University Complex in Penta (SA). The available equipment includes tools for: sieving analysis; heating, mixing, and compaction of materials; cutting of specimens into prismatic and cylindrical shapes; specific gravity determination; determination, using the Universal Dynamic Press, of the complex modulus, fatigue strength, and permanent deformations; and determination, using the SKID Tester, of skid resistance and friction of road surface.

Scientific and Research Activities

The laboratory, by means of its components, conducts research on a wide range of topics, including: road safety, computational fluid dynamics modeling and user evacuation under emergency conditions in tunnels; risk analysis, also with reference to new energy carriers such as hydrogen or electric ones; resilience of transportation infrastructure; models and methods for statistical analysis of traffic accident data; micro and macro-simulation of traffic; road geometric design; structural behavior of road, rail, and airport superstructures; and road materials.

Services

The laboratory of Roads, Railways and Airports provides services to the territory in terms of consultancy for the design of road infrastructures and intersections, as well as with carrying out risk analysis of roads, tunnels, and alternative routes. The laboratory is also available for the statistical analysis of accident data, the study of escape processes of people from structures of relevant interest in the event of fire and/or explosion, and tunnel excavation materials. In addition, the laboratory performs experimental dynamic tests on bituminous conglomerate used in road pavements, skid resistance and friction tests, as well as sieving analysis.

Theses and Internships

The laboratory of Roads, Railways and Airports also carries out internship activities and contributes to the development of both theoretical-experimental and numerical-simulation theses concerning the aforementioned research topics and other topics pertaining to the scientific disciplinary sector CEAR-03/A (Roads, railways and airports). In this regard, each student has access to a computer and all software available in the laboratory. In addition, the laboratory is also involved in external internship activities with public or private institutions.