Valutazione del comportamento di edifici in calcestruzzo ordinario e alleggerito in relazione alla tipologia di fondazione

In these last years, besides ordinary concrete, the use of innovative materials like lightweight concrete has become increasingly widespread for several sustainability and structural reasons. Lightweight concrete is usually produced by replacing ordinary aggregates with lightweight ones, so resulting in a lower material density, with respect to ordinary concrete, which in turn leads to a significant decrease in self-weight and to the consequent possibility of a cross-section reduction in the bearing elements constituting both the superstructure and the foundations. This determines not only great benefits in terms of global seismic response, but also the possibility of building on poor soils with low bearing capacity that would make construction with ordinary concrete extremely complex or would require expensive types of foundations. In this work a parametrical - numerical analysis on a case study represented by a reinforced – ordinary and lightweight – concrete multi-storey building will be performed in order to investigate the possible advantages related to a "more light" structure when the soil characteristics vary. The structural performances obtained by adopting concrete with different density will be compared and discussed in terms of choice of foundation type (shallow or deep) and of material saving.