Vagnon, F.; Dino, G.A.; Umili, G.; Cardu, M.; Ferrero, A.M. New Developments for the Sustainable Exploitation of Ornamental Stone in Carrara Basin. Sustainability2020, 12, 9374.
Vagnon, F.; Dino, G.A.; Umili, G.; Cardu, M.; Ferrero, A.M. New Developments for the Sustainable Exploitation of Ornamental Stone in Carrara Basin. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9374.
Vagnon, F.; Dino, G.A.; Umili, G.; Cardu, M.; Ferrero, A.M. New Developments for the Sustainable Exploitation of Ornamental Stone in Carrara Basin. Sustainability2020, 12, 9374.
Vagnon, F.; Dino, G.A.; Umili, G.; Cardu, M.; Ferrero, A.M. New Developments for the Sustainable Exploitation of Ornamental Stone in Carrara Basin. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9374.
Abstract
The use of natural stone has a historical and environmental value that makes it strategically valuable for landscape conservation in Europe. Marble, among others, is widely spread on Earth, and it offers high-performance features in architectural applications. However, the complexity of these formations and the rock variability in different ore bodies require detailed studies of the natural and induced stress state, the fracturing degree, and the influence of external factor (such as temperature and/or chemical agents) on the mechanical properties in order to optimize the exploitation processes by reducing extractive waste. This article shows a series of studies conducted by the authors over the last 20 years aimed at making the exploitation of marble blocks in the Carrara basin safer, more efficient, and, therefore, more sustainable. In particular, studies for increasing the knowledge on the natural and the induced stress state through on-site measurements and numerical modeling, studies to improve the quality of the exploited material through improvements of cutting technologies, studies to improve the knowledge of the mechanical behavior of the material under varying loads and temperature conditions and studies to improve the reuse of water materials and their reduction are reported.
Keywords
Ornamental stone; rock mass state of stress and fracturing; marble exploitation techniques; waste reduction
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
