Luca Bruno, Prof. Ph.D.

Associate Professor in Structural Design

Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnics

Politecnico di Torino

Viale Mattioli, 39

I - 10126 Torino, Italy

Tel.      +39-011-564.48.70

Fax      +39-011-564.49.99

e-mail: luca.bruno@polito.it

url:      http://staff.polito.it/luca.bruno/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Short Curriculum Vitae

 

-          Date of birth: 19 April 1971

 

-          since December 2004: Associate Professor in Structural Engineering at the Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies - Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

-          1999 - 2004: Assistant Professor in Structural Engineering at the Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies - Politecnico di Torino, Italy;

-          1997 - 2000: PhD in Fluid Mechanics at l’Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre, UMR 6594 CNRS / UM-UP- Marseille, France;

-          1997 - 2000: PhD in Structural Engineering at the Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies - Politecnico di Torino, Italy;

-          1996 - 1997: Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondis (D.E.A.) “Dynamique des Structures et Couplages” - Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Ecole Centrale de Paris, Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées, Paris, France.

-          1991 - 1996: Degree in Architecture – Faculty of Architecture - Politecnico di Torino, Torino. Italy.

 

Click here to access the complete Curriculum Vitae.

 

 


Awards and Scholarships

 

-          April 2008: Outstanding Paper Award promoted by the International Association for Bridge Structural Engineering (IABSE). Paper: F. Venuti, L. Bruno, P. Napoli (2007), “Pedestrian lateral action on lively footbridges: a new load model”, SEI, 3/2007 (pre-print PDF). The Award is remitted each year to the author of a paper published in the preceding year’s issues of the IABSE journal, Structural Engineering International (SEI).

-          December 2005: Young author’s award promoted by the Office Technique pour l'Utilisation de l'Acier (Otua) at the 2nd International Conference Footbridge 2005 (2nd prize). Paper: F. Venuti, L. Bruno, N. Bellomo (2005), “Crowd-structure interaction: dynamics modelling and computational simulations”,  Footbridge 2005 Proceedings, Venice.

-          September 2002: ANIV Best Paper award, promoted by the Italian Wind Engineers Association (ANIV). Paper: L. Bruno, S. Khris, J. Marcillat (2001), “Contribution of numerical simulation to evaluating the effect of section details and partial streamlining on the aerodynamic behaviour of  bridge decks”, Wind and Structures, Techno-Press, vol. 4 (pre-print PDF). The Award has been remitted to the best paper of a young Italian Researcher in Wind Engineering published in an international journal during the period 1998-2002.

-          September 1997: OPTIME award for the "Best Young Graduates of the Year" provided by the Employers’ Association of Turin.

 

-          September 1998: winner of the three-years scholarship promoted by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research to help international mobility for the joint Italian/French PhD course.

-          June 1997: winner of the one-year scholarship offered by the University “La Sapienza  - Rome promoted to financially help attendance in specialization courses abroad (D.E.A. Course at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, France).

 

 

 


Teaching Activity

 

-    Vision

 

Teaching in mono-disciplinary courses:

from posed engineering or architectural problems to models and solution techniques via physical phenomena observation.

 

One of the engineers main missions is to build quantitative mathematical models to describe in a compact and accurate way the significant features of the complicate, sometimes complex, real world in order to analyse and modify it.

The writer’s past teaching activity has been addressed to develop the student’s attitude and ability to fully follow the path of this conceptual track.

 

Teaching in multi-disciplinary design studios:

the convergence of heterogeneous knowledge in the design practice to set and solve a problem via an iterative process.

 

Architects and engineers, exact sciences, human sciences and technologies generally cooperate in the design of every handwork over the landscape: the writer’s past teaching activity has been addressed to develop the students’ attitude to combine different kinds of knowledge, to compensate heterogeneous performance requirements and to collaborate with co-workers with different professional backgrounds.

The design process, not always causal and linear, involves both the “problem setting” – also called “structural conceptual design” – and the “problem solving”, both preformed at different scales in space and during different process phases: the writer’s past teaching activity has been addressed to give to the students the opportunity to experience, handle and control the design process.

 

-    University courses

 

-          2000/01 – 2009/10: “Structure I” course – BSc. Course in Architectural Sciences – Ist Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Torino (I year, I semester, 40 hours, about 120 students). Click here to access the contents of the Course.

-          2000/01 – 2009/10:  Contribute of Structural Concept Design in the frame of the Studio Design “Architecture - Town Planning”– BSc. Course in Architectural Sciences – Ist Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Torino (I year, II semester, 30 hours, about 60 students). Click here to access the contents of the Course.

-          2003/04 – 2009/10: “Wind Engineering” module (about 75 hours) within the Course “Wind Engineering and Statistics of Random Process”, MSc. Course in Mathematics for Engineering Sciences – Ist Faculty of Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (II year, I semester, about 15 students), co-chaired by L. Bruno, G. Pistone (Department of Mathematics). Click here to access the contents of the Course.

-          since 2010/11: “Structures” module (60 hours) within the first year Studio Design “Architectural Design”– BSc. Course in Architectural Sciences – Ist Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Torino (I year, II semester, about 75 students).

-          since 2010/11: “Computational Wind Engineering” module (about 50 hours) within the Course “Computational Fluid Dynamics and Wind Engineering”, MSc. Course in Mathematics for Engineering Sciences – Ist Faculty of Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (II year, I semester, about 25 students), co-chaired by L. Bruno, C. Canuto (Department of Mathematics), L. Zannetti (Aerospace Engineering Department).

 

The teaching activity quality at Politecncico di Torino is monitored by an ad hoc Evaluation Committee (CPD, http://www2.polito.it/strutture/cpd).

Click here to access the courses scores statistics.

 

 

 


Supervision of Theses

 

-          2011: designated scientific tutor of a 3-years PhD scholarship on the theme “Multi-scale modelling of complex crowd-structure interaction for applications in Civil Engineering” funded by the Lagrange Project (CRT bank foundation and the Institute for Scientific Interchange foundation).

-          Since 2010: Member of the Council of the PhD School in Structural Engineering at Politecnico di Torino;

-          Since 2009: Member of the Council of the PhD School in Mathematics for Engineering Sciences at Politecnico di Torino;

-          2004 - 2007: Co-supervisor of the Phd Thesis in Mathematics for Engineering Sciences “Stochastic Numerical Models for Wind Engineering” (pre-print PDF). Student: Davide Fransos. Co-supervisor: C. Canuto (Department of Mathematics).

-          2004 - 2007: Formulation of the research theme and tutoring in the development of the Phd Thesis in Structural Engineering “Crowd-Structure Interaction in Lively Footbridges” (pre-print PDF). Student: Fiammetta Venuti. Co-supervisors: P. Napoli (Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies) and N. Bellomo (Department of Mathematics). Recipient of the following awards and grants:

-          First prize at the 2nd Young Engineers Symposium (Fribourg 2007, Switzerland), organized by the Swiss national group of IABSE;

-          Talent Support grant 2007 offered by the IABSE Fundation;

-          Second prize at the 7th PhD Symposium in Civil Engineering (Stuttgart 2008, Germany), organized by Fédération Internationale du Beton.

-          since 1998: co-supervisor and supervisor of many BSc. and MSc. Theses in Architecture, Civil Engineering and Mathematics for Engineering Sciences. The MSc. Thesis “Conception of a suspended pedestrian footbridge through numerical optimisation” has been the recipient of the “Steel Promotion” Award 2003.

 

 

 

 


Main Research Activity

 

-    Vision

 

Besides inside the structure, look around it. (read more…)

 

-    Past and present research activity

 

The writer initiated in the Nineties a research field scarcely explored in Italy and at its infancy in the international scientific community: the computational study of dynamic interaction phenomena between civil structures and some types of flows to which the structures are subjected, i.e. the incoming wind flow (aerodynamic and aeroelastic behaviour of bridges, cables, tower) and the crossing crowd flow (dynamic behaviour of footbridges).

The writer’s research activity has been and actually is part of a multidisciplinary context, working with several research structures at Politecnico di Torino and collaborating at a national and international level. He also collaborates in a stable way with consulting companies in both civil engineering and Fluid Mechanics.

 

The main research themes afforded up to now can be classified in three groups.

 

-          Direct computational simulation of the aerodynamic behaviour of bluff bodies:

a.      computational simulations of turbulent flows around bluff bodies; (read more…)

b.      evaluation of the aerodynamic loads on long-span bridge decks. (read more…)

 

-          Indirect aerodynamic/aeroelastic characterisation of a prototype via identification of the empirical functions by means of the computational approach:

c.       determination of aerodynamic admittance functions and flutter derivatives; (read more…)

d.      determination of stochastic aerodynamic and aeroelastic coefficients. (read more…)

 

-          Computational simulation of the crowd-structure interaction in footbridges:

e.       crowd modelling and development of pedestrians load model; (read more…)

f.       computational simulation of the coupled system (crowd-structure interaction). (read more…)

 

-    Future research activity

 

 Are you interested to cooperate with me in future research activities? Please, contact me writing to luca.bruno@polito.it

 

 

 


Publications

 

The results of the research activities have been published in national and international congress and journals, since 1997.

Click here to access the list of publications and downloadable pre-print (.pdf format).

 

Reviewer for several International Journals (Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Wind and Structures, Engineering Structures, Structural Engineering International, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers Transaction) and International Conferences. Evaluator of research proposals submitted for financing to National Authorities in several countries.

 

 

 


Research Contracts and Conventions

 

-            2007-2009: scientific responsibility at the Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies (Politecnico di Torino) for the research and development project Lagrange, promoted by the CRT bank foundation and the Institute for Scientific Interchange foundation. Title of the project: “Modelling of interaction phenomena in the complex crowd-structure system for pedestrian crossing”. Co-founding by the Sintecna Company (Turin, Italy), consulting company in structural engineering. Total founding: 20.000,00 Euro.

-            2006-2008: Coordinator of the local project unit for the Politecnico Torino within the Research Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN) “Aeroelastic phenomena and other dynamic interactions in non conventional bridges and footbridges”. Coordinator at a national level: C. Borri (Università di Firenze). Specific title of the programme carried out by the local research group: “Computational simulation of the wind-structure and pedestrian-structure interaction in crossing works”. Founding assigned to the local project unit: 54.000,00 Euro.

-            2005: scientific responsibility for the research and development contract between the Department of Mathematics - Politecnico di Torino and the Optiflow Company (Marseille, France), consulting company in fluid dynamics, for the purpose of determining flutter derivatives of bridge decks through computational approach.

-            2004-2006: Participation in the Research Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN) “Reliability in time of bridge and viaduct structures”. Coordinator at a national level: P.G. Malerba (Politecnico di Milano). Coordinator of the local project unit: D. Sabia.

-            2002-2004: participation in the Research Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN) “Identification, modelling, analysis and control of the uncertainties in the design of long-span bridges”. Coordinator at a national level: P.G. Malerba (Politecnico di Milano). Coordinator of the local project unit: G. Mancini.

-            1999 - 2002: in charge of the yearly Research Projects financed by the Politecnico di Torino as part of the Young Researchers’ Programme. Title of the projects: “Numerical simulation of the aeroelastic effects of the wind on long-span bridge decks” and “Numerical simulation of the aerodynamic behaviour of long-span bridges”. Total founding: 13.743,00 Euro.

 

 

 

 


Institutional and Management Activities

 

-            2007 – 2009: president of the Study Course Council in Architectural Sciences (47 professors, about 1200 students)Ist  Faculty of Architecture – Politecnico di Torino.

-            2005 – 2007: vice president of the Study Course Council in Architectural Sciences – Ist  Faculty of Architecture – Politecnico di Torino.

-            2004 - 2005: member of the Work Group for the National Observatory on the Teaching of Architecture – Ist Faculty of Architecture – Politecnico di Torino.

-            2001 – 2005: member of several Work Groups at the Ist Faculty of Architecture – Politecnico di Torino: Teaching, Students Relationship and Tutoring, Sustainability.

-            1998 – 2007 : concept, development and management of the Computing Center in the Architectural quarters of the Department of Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Studies – Politecnico di Torino.

 

 

 

 


Other Professional Activities

 

-            since 2006: in progress study of the wind effects on the high-rise building (210 m high) for the new headquarters of the Intesa – S. Paolo Bank in Turin (architectural design by R. Piano). Consultancy work for the Sintecna Company (Turin, Italy) on behalf of the Intesa - S. Paolo Bank.

-            1999: study of the wind effects on the glass cover and the sunbreaker elements of the centre for vehicle engineering  (Lingotto di Torino, architectural design by R. Piano). Consultancy work for the OptiFlow Company (Marseille, France) on behalf of the Sintecna Company (Turin, Italy).

-            1996: employed in the Lajara Architectural and Engineering Society in Marseille (France): posted to the “Groupe Aérodynamique Numérique” (I.R.P.H.E.), Unité Mixte de Recherche n°138 C.N.R.S Universités de la Méditerranée et de Provence, as part of the convention: "Windengeen: étude numérique de l’action du vent sur les structures".

 

 

 

 


Memberships

 

-          Member of the Scientific Committee of the Research Centre on Buildings Aerodynamics and Wind Engineering (CRIACIV);

-          Member of the Italian Association of Wind Engineering (ANIV);

-          Member of the International Association for Bridge Structural Engineering (IABSE);

-          Member of the Working Group on Benchmarking of the International Association of Wind Engineering (IAWE);

-          Member of the Organizing Committee of the Benchmark on the Aerodynamics of a Rectangular 5:1 Cylinder (BARC).

 

 


Last updated: December 2011