Ventilation​ and Tunnel Safety course collaboration between TU Graz and Politecnico di Torino

This doctoral level course was held online in March 2024 and offered (in English) to participants from both universities with different backgrounds (Civil, Energy and Mechanical Engineering) as a series of short theory lessons and joint group work sessions, focused on the development of safety strategies and design of safety installations.

Course coordinators Daniel Fruhwirt and Davide Papurello met within the research group led by Prof. Sturm and Prof. Borchiellini, working on the topic of tunnel ventilation, safety assessment and risk analysis considering new energy vectors. The drafting of the content of the joint course was done on an equal footing, by contributing to the drafting as if it was a small research project. Face to face meetings have been supported by Erasmus+ mobility grants. Teaching responsibilities were shared between the coordinators, who alternated their lectures, or delivered them together. A seminar session with experts from industry (such as JES, System Air, Aquasys) was also been scheduled. The final examination was linked to the presentation of the group activity, followed by a short discussion on the topic.

A site visit to a real tunnel (Brenner basetunnel, between Austria and Italy) has been scheduled after the course (July 2024); costs are covered by TU Graz, up to a maximum of 15 students per university.

A new edition of the course has been planned for March 2025.

The collaboration between the coordinators is continuing with new activities within the Unite! Alliance (organization of a BIP, joint Seed Funds application on both teaching and research activities, etc.).

A survey among the participant showed a large number of positive feedbacks, on both the content and the organization of the course. The schedule (all the lectures are held within 1.5 weeks) is a positive feature for some participant, but perceived as negative by others. Some of the participants asked for more supervised work sessions.