News

A great start for the GENIUS MSCA Doctoral Network!

Over the past few days, members of the Rockmech Research Group participated in the first Training School of the GENIUS MSCA Doctoral Network.

During the event, Alessandra Insana and Marco Barla delivered lectures to the 15 doctoral researchers participating in the network, contributing to the programme’s scientific and educational activities.

We are delighted to welcome Politecnico di Torino’s two new doctoral researchers: Borislava Georgieva, from Bulgaria, and Rahul Velu, from India.

Moreover, Mattia Garza, a former Politecnico di Torino student, and Claudia Guidolin, both currently based at UGA in France, will undertake their secondment periods at Politecnico di Torino.

Welcome to the Rockmech team!

Our Rockmech team member Alessandra Insana has just returned from Trondheim, Norway, where she attended the Final Conference of the H2020 ARV Project. This event marked the culmination of five years of collaborative research and innovation towards more sustainable, energy-efficient and climate-positive buildings and communities.

The conference offered two inspiring days of presentations and discussions, showcasing innovative solutions and valuable lessons learned from six demonstration projects across Europe, while also exploring opportunities for their wider implementation.

On the second day, Alessandra contributed to the discussion with the presentation:

“Thermal retrofitting by radial heat exchangers of the existing Piedicastello tunnels in Trento”

The work was co-authored with Marco Barla and Simone De Feudis and highlighted the potential of existing underground infrastructures to contribute to the energy transition.

As the ARV project approaches its conclusion, we would like to congratulate the entire consortium on the impressive work carried out over the past five years and the results achieved.

A special thank you to Inger Andresen, Jaume Salom and Kelly Riedesel for their kind invitation, warm hospitality and excellent organisation of the event.

We look forward to seeing how the outcomes of ARV will inspire future research and practical applications!

From 15 to 19 September 2026, members of the RockMech Research Group and the DISEG Department took part in EUROCK 2026, held in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Throughout the conference, our team contributed with the following workshop and presentations, in chronological order:

1. Prof. Marco Barla with the workshop: “When adaptive design is not yet the Observational Method: lessons from the Perca tunnel”
2. Dr. Maddalena Marchelli with the presentation: “A probabilistic fragmentation-based rockfall model for open-pit and natural slopes”
3. Prof. Valerio De Biagi with the presentation: “From nominal energy to capacity curves: a probabilistic framework for reliability-based design of flexible rockfall barriers”
4. PhD student Francesco Campana with the presentation: “Triaxial creep testing on argillaceous weak rock for DSGSD movement prediction”
5. PhD student Juliana Lopez Ochoa with the presentation: “Numerical study of an abandoned mine repurposed for CAES systems”
6. Dr. Maria Lia Napoli with the presentation: “Numerical Analysis of Cervo Cliff Stability Due to Basal Marine Erosion”

Our PhD students Francesco Campana and Juliana Lopez Ochoa also took part in the exciting RockBowl competition, where they made it all the way to the finals!

EUROCK 2026 was a great opportunity to share with the scientific community the research being carried out within the DISEG Department and the RockMech Research Group, while also exchanging ideas and connecting with researchers and professionals from across the field of rock mechanics. A great week of science, discussion, and teamwork in Skopje!

The 1st World Congress on Energy Geostructures was held on 3 September 2026 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The Congress was organised by the International Society for Energy Geostructures (ISEG), chaired by Prof. Marco Barla, and represents the legacy of the FOLIAGE COST Action, continuing its efforts to strengthen international collaboration and advance research in energy geostructures.

The Rockmech team contributed with several presentations:

• “Numerical investigation on the influence of partially saturated soil conditions on the heat exchanged by a shallow energy wall” , presented by Maria Romana Alvi.
• “Analytical and Numerical Simulation of the Charging Phase for an Underground Thermal Energy Storage System in an Air-raid Shelter” , presented by Juliana Lopez Ochoa.
• “Numerical investigation of the thermal performance of an existing tunnel retrofitted by radial heat exchangers” , presented by Simone De Feudis.
• “Technological solution for the thermal activation of a microtunnel” , presented by Martina Scerbo.
• “Exploring existing underground spaces in Europe for thermal energy production and storage” , presented by Alessandra Insana.

Simone De Feudis received the Best Paper Award for his work on the thermal performance of existing tunnels retrofitted with radial heat exchangers.

The first edition also looked ahead to the future of the Congress, with the next editions officially announced.

Congratulations to Maria Romana Alvi, who completed her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a thesis entitled:

“Enhancing energy geostructures by heat storage materials and integration with solar energy”

The research, carried out under the supervision of Prof. Marco Barla and Dr. Alessandra Insana, focused on optimising the efficiency of energy geostructures through the integration of Phase Change Materials (PCM), combining advanced numerical modelling with experimental validation.

Congratulations to Amirreza Pourfatollah, who completed his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a thesis entitled:

“Climate Change Impacts on Landslide Susceptibility in the Alpine Region Using a Machine Learning Approach”

The research, carried out under the supervision of Prof. Marco Barla, Prof. Valerio De Biagi and Dr. Alessandra Insana, focused on developing a data-driven approach to assess landslide susceptibility across complex Alpine terrain by integrating geospatial analysis with machine-learning algorithms.

A tunnel that produces energy while improving road safety: this Politecnico di Torino innovation was recognised at the ITA Awards 2025.

The Tun.Re.Fit. project, developed by the team of the Department of Structural, Building and Geotechnical Engineering (DISEG) — Marco Barla, Simone De Feudis and Alessandra Insana — achieved second place in the Technical Innovation of the Year category.

Urban infrastructure as an energy source: discover the geothermal energy you would not expect.

Politecnico di Torino presented its innovative geothermal solutions at Solar Solutions Torino, the new summit dedicated to renewable energy in Northern Italy.

The seminar by Prof. Marco Barla took place on 1 October 2025 at 14:50 at Lingotto Fiere in Turin.

Energy geostructures represent an innovative frontier in geothermal technology, transforming buildings and infrastructure into active sources of energy. This international event explored the design and construction challenges involved in accelerating the market adoption of these cutting-edge solutions.

The workshop was organised within the annual meeting of COST Action CA21156 “Fostering Large-Scale Implementation of Energy Geostructures” (FOLIAGE), the Driving Urban Transitions project REGENERATE and the PRIN 2022 national research project GEOREFIT.

Drawing on the results of these three projects, the workshop provided an overview of the latest technologies and showcased successful international case studies. Internationally recognised experts presented innovative solutions, while companies shared relevant examples for the Italian market.

The workshop was open free of charge to professionals, students and academics, and was held in English with continuing professional education credits available for engineers, geologists and architects.

The event offered a valuable opportunity for professional development and networking with leading specialists in the field of energy geostructures.

From 16 to 20 June, our team took part in EUROCK 2025 in Trondheim, Norway, one of the most important international conferences in rock mechanics and rock engineering.

• Marco Barla delivered the keynote lecture “The design of energy tunnels for a sustainable future”, offering a forward-looking perspective on the role of energy tunnels as sustainable infrastructure.
• Maria Lia Napoli presented “Validation of the rockfall SIF and SAI indexes by a 3D analysis of a rock slope in Valsesia Valley (Italy)”, using three-dimensional modelling to validate predictive indexes on a real slope.
• Lorenzo Milan discussed “A rational method for assessing the occurrence of brittle failure in deep tunnels”, proposing a rational predictive approach to brittle behaviour in deep tunnel environments.
• Giulia Torsello presented her experimental research on “Mode I fracture toughness of a low-porosity rock subjected to freeze-thaw cycles”, addressing rock durability under cold-climate conditions.
• Maria Teresa Carriero presented “Estimation of the Failure Probability of Attenuator Rockfall Protection Structures Using a Reliability Analysis Approach (RBD) and Kriging Metamodel”, combining advanced reliability analysis and metamodeling for rockfall protection design.

In addition to the scientific programme, Maria Teresa Carriero and Giulia Torsello took part in the RockBowl, an international competition challenging young researchers with technical and non-technical questions on rock mechanics and engineering. With the support of Maria Rita Migliazza as their faculty tutor, they achieved an excellent second place.

Maria Teresa Carriero received the Best Player award, while Giulia Torsello received the Best Paper – Young Category award for the scientific excellence of her work.

Presentations, discussions and teamwork made EUROCK 2025 a memorable event for our geotechnical research team.

On 21 January 2025, Maria Romana Alvi attended the Young Academics Award 2024 Finalists Workshop in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia.

This edition of the Alpine Convention’s Young Academics Award focused on “Responding to Environmental Changes and Maintaining a High Quality of Life in the Alps”.

Maria’s master’s thesis, “Thermal Performance Assessment of an Energy Lining in the Turin–Lyon Base Tunnel”, supervised by Marco Barla and Alessandra Insana, was selected as one of the noteworthy contributions to sustainable development in the Alps.

The research demonstrated how thermal activation in warm tunnels, such as those in the Alpine region, could recover heat from the surrounding environment. This process could generate clean energy for local Alpine communities while reducing tunnel ventilation requirements.