Development of a methodological procedure for the durability evaluation of existing exterior finishings

The aim of the research is the development of a methodology to improve the precision of the degradation survey phase, assessing durability and environmental impacts in the context of sustainable constructions. The method concentrates on the evaluation of the residual service life of external finishing systems correlating the level of damage (carried out through NDT and GIS application), to residual performances. The research of a methodological formulation, to be applied on historical and new (existing) buildings, has the aim to elaborate strategies to increase the service life of the components minimizing the environmental impacts inside the building process. The study promotes maintenance planning or preventive preservation plans, in order to reduce the risk factors. The procedure has a direct experimental application within the research project “Città Studi: Sustainable Campus”, intended to transform the university area in Milan into an exemplar campus with respect to life quality and environmental sustainability. The paper reports the application of the investigation procedures on some buildings inside Leonardo Campus. On the base of the results, the researchers are performing different lab tests for the evaluation of the adsorption properties and durability of mortars, in view of a validation of the behaviour obtained through software simulation.