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Tunnelling and underground construction operations are often characterized by critical safety issues mainly due to poor visibility and blind spots around large vehicles and equipment. This can lead to collisions between vehicles or between vehicles and pedestrians or structural elements, causing accidents and fatalities. To improve the OS&H conditions, it is important to investigate the possible introduction of innovative techniques and technologies to reduce the occurrences and consequences of shared spaces (spaces used by both vehicles and pedestrians). For this reason, research was conducted to investigate the possible use of different technologies of anti-collision systems in tunnelling operations. First, to achieve this goal, an extensive review of the literature was carried out in accordance with the PRISMA statement to select the current techniques and technologies used by general anti-collision systems in civil and mining construction sites. Then, the operating principles, the relative advantages and disadvantages, combinations, and costs were examined for each of these. Eight types of systems and many examples of applications of anti-collision systems in underground environments were identified as a result of the analysis of the literature. Generally, it was noted that the anti-collision techniques available have found limited application in the excavation sites of underground civil works up to the present day, though the the improvement in terms of safety and efficiency would be considerable.

We study the thermal behaviour of some models in a steady periodic regime. The aim is to simulate the be-haviour of small environments at the outermost part of our planet, subjected to the periodic solar radiation. Our approach is based on a method using lumped elements or volumes that simplifies the description of spa-tially distributed physical systems, through a topology consisting of discrete entities. Our models include some parts acting as energy storage systems, made with Phase Change Materials (PCMs). The storage is based on latent heats: the energy is stored during the melting and recovered during the solidification of the PCM substance. The simulation with lumped elements shows some interesting behaviours of temperatures

This is an author version of the contribution published on:Questa è la versione dell 'autore dell'opera: Labagnara, D., Patrucco, M., Rossetti, P., Pellegrino, V., 2013 - Sciences, 70(2), 2013, 857-868, DOI 10.1007/s12665-012-2174 The definitive version is available at: La versione definitiva è disponibile alla URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12665-012-2174-1 post-print of: Labagnara et al. , 2013 AbstractThe modern approach to the design and management of tunnel excavation, and muck reuse, can be influenced to a great extent by the possible presence of rock formations containing asbestos minerals. This situation creates problems concerning the protection of the workers' health and the expectable environmental criticalities, while a drastic re-consideration of the muck destination is necessary.

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Abstract:In tunnelling operations, Occupational Safety and Health (OS&H) and Environmental Protection of the areas close to the tunnel portal become even more critical in case of rock formations potentially containing asbestos, quartz, radioactive elements, etc. In order to limit the workers' exposure and the environmental impact becomes in these cases of paramount importance to preliminarily analyze and quantify the possible presence of the pollutants in the rock and, if necessary, to implement suitable measures to avoid/minimize their emission from the winning and mucking operations. However, in case of asbestos minerals, to obtain reliable results from the preliminary analysis is a challenging task, due to the complex patterns of occurrence of asbestos within the host rock. Consequently, the definition of special monitoring, alarm and control systems is essential during the tunnel excavation. The paper summarizes the results of a thorough study aimed at defining the most suitable monitoring techniques in uncertain situations and the residual criticalities, essentially due to the delay between the beginning of the pollutant release at the tunnel face and its detection. The final part of the work deals with the possible innovative prevention solutions suitable to minimize the previously mentioned delay and ensure the safety of the workers along the time necessary to stop the activities and evacuate the tunnel, on hold of the activation of a special "asbestos" organization.

Rockfalls during quarrying activities are among the most critical risks associated with the various kinds of geological instabilities. Nevertheless, very few tools are available to help designers and managers correctly define these risk conditions in a rational way and to quantify the advantages that can be obtained using suitable prevention measures. For this purpose, taking into account the ''Prevention through Design'' approach, it is necessary to weigh the various parameters that are involved and to define the most important factors, that is, the ones that have the most influence on rockfall phenomena. A risk evaluation system that is able to support decision makers in the critical rockfall risk assessment phase and offer them the updated information that is necessary for a continuous and dynamic operation design during exploitation activities is presented and discussed here.