Stronger S.r.l. is a consulting spin-off company that works between academia and industry in civil and environmental engineering. It offers tools and methodologies to design resilient, sustainable structures through specialized analysis and simulations. The company's expertise includes bridges, tunnels, tall buildings, offshore wind turbines, innovative connections, and energy harvesting devices. It provides consulting services in design, rehabilitation, fire/explosion design, forensic engineering, teaching, and research development.

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StroNGER
Structures of the Next Generation – Energy harvesting and Resilience
C. Crosti, S. Arangio, F. Petrini, K. Gkoumas, F. Bontempi

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StroNGER
Stronger S.r.l. is a consulting spin-off company that works as a link between Academic
Sector and Industry in Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Company offers high-profile methodologies and tools, which help the construction
industry to realize high performance structures from the point of view of dependability,
resilience and sustainability.
The team of Stronger S.r.l. is able to analyze structural problems in a scientific and technical
manner, by developing specialized numerical analyses with different finite element codes
and advanced multiphysics simulations.
The Company’s expertise regards long-span bridges, tunnels, high-rise buildings, offshore
wind turbines, innovative precast connections, structures subject to accidental actions such
as fire and explosion, devices for energy harvesting, structural assessment of existing
buildings and their retrofitting.

3. University Research Group
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STEFANIA
ARANGIO
FRANCESCO
PETRINI
KONSTANTINOS
GKOUMAS
FRANCO
BONTEMPI
CHIARA
CROSTI

4. People
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Prof. Ing. Franco Bontempi, Coordinatore scientifico
Professor Bontempi is full Professor of Structural Analysis and Design in the Faculty of Civil Engineering of
the Sapienza University of Rome since 2000. He is currently responsible for the courses of “Structural
Analysis and Design”, “Steel Structures”, “Structural Fire Design”. His main research interests are the
structural analysis and performance based design of high-rise buildings and bridges, leading a research
group among the most active in the field of numerical analysis and structural modeling. He was part of the
scientific committees for the new Italian Building Code (Norme Tecniche delle Costruzioni) and for the
Messina Strait Bridge. He was also involved in consulting activity on Offshore Wind Turbines and high-rise
buildings. He serves frequently as special expert for forensic engineering hearings, regarding structural
collapses. He is also member of the board of directors of the Science and Technology Research Center for
Cultural Heritage Conservation (CISTeC - Centro di Ricerca di Scienza e Tecnica per la Conservazione del
Patrimonio Storico-Architettonico).

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Ing. Chiara Crosti, Co-founder & CEO
Chiara Crosti received her bachelor and master degree in Civil Engineering from Sapienza University of
Rome and a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the same school in 2011. She collaborated actively in
various national and international projects. In particular, during the Ph.D. she worked for almost two years
at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA). Her expertise is in the numerical
modeling and the assessment of the structural safety of structures and bridges. She also deals with the
design and rehabilitation of structures under fire. She was involved as consultant in forensic engineering
disputes. Since 2008 she is teaching assistant for the class of Structural Analysis and Design and since
2013 for the class of Structural fire safety in the School of Civil Engineering of Sapienza University of
Rome. She also teaches classes for Professional Engineers.
Ing. Stefania Arangio, Co-founder & Director
Stefania Arangio received a 5-years Laurea degree (equivalent with MEng + MSc) in Civil Engineering from
Sapienza University of Rome, and a Ph.D. from the same University in Structural Engineering in 2008.
During her Ph.D. she spent several months abroad at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech, USA).
Then she had a post-doc position in a project of the Italian Council of Research (CNR) on the structural
assessment of urban areas subjected to geological and hydrogeological hazards. During the post-doc she
spent some work periods abroad: she was visiting scholar at the City University of New York (USA) and she
had a contract with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA). Her expertise is in the
structural monitoring of buildings and bridges and the structural assessment of the built heritage. She was
involved as consultant in forensic engineering disputes. Since 2005 she is teaching assistant for the class
of Structural Analysis and Design in the School of Civil Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome. She
was also appointed Professor of Precast Structures (2008) in the School of Engineering and Static
behavior of the structures (2009) in the School of Architecture “Ludovico Quaroni”. She co-authored two
technical books on steel structures and she teaches classes for Professional Engineers.

6. People
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Ing. Francesco Petrini, Co-founder & Director
Francesco Petrini received a 5-years Laurea degree (equivalent with MEng + MSc) in Civil Engineering
from Sapienza University of Rome, and a Ph.D. from the same University in Structural Engineering in 2009.
Then he had a post-doc position at Sapienza and worked on the Performance-based wind Design of
structures and bridges. He worked also as consultant in the field of complex structures. He spent research
periods abroad at the Louisiana State University (USA) and in Greece at the National Technical University
of Athens (NTUA). His expertise is in the numerical modeling and the performace-based design of
buildings, bridges and special structures subject to wind and seismic actions. Since 2005 he is teaching
assistant for the class of Steel structures in the School of Civil Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome.
He was also appointed professor of Structural aspects of Engineering (2009) and Structural reliability
(2008) in the School of Engineering and Static behavior of the structures (2009) in the School of
Architecture “Ludovico Quaroni”.
Konstantinos Gkoumas, Co-founder & Partner
Dr Gkoumas holds a 5-year Laurea degree (equivalent with MEng + MSc) in Civil Engineering from the
Sapienza University of Rome, and a Ph.D. from the same University in Transportation and Infrastructures
(with a Thesis on operational research). Dr Gkoumas is currently a research associate at the Sapienza
University of Rome (ITALY). He is a registered engineer in Italy (Rome) and Greece since 2004. He has a
professional activity of three years at the Co.Re. Ingegneria (2005-2007). After obtaining his Ph.D. he
conducted research on different topics of public transport and structural robustness. Dr Gkoumas spent
research periods abroad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), at the Lehigh University
(USA) and the Harbin Institute of Technology (PRC). In 2009 he won a scholarship from the German
Academic Exchange Service (DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) and he spent a research
period at the Institute for Numerical and Applied Mathematics of the University of Goettingen (DE). The
current field of research of Dr Gkoumas is Energy Harvesting (EH), focusing on the numerical modeling
and on innovative and practical aspects .

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UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA
Prof. S. Manenti
POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Prof. A. De Stefano
Prof. G.P. Cimellaro
Academic collaboration in ITALY
POLITECNICO MILANO
Prof. P.G. Malerba
Prof. F. Biondini
Prof. L. Sgambi

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Academic collaboration in EUROPE
TU Delft
Prof. M.A.N. Hendriks
TUHH
Prof. U. Starossek
UN. OF EDINBURGH
Prof. J. Torero
LOUGHBOROUGH UN.
Prof. A. Palmeri
DTU
Prof. L. Giuliani
NTUA
Prof. C. Gantes
UPC
Prof. J.R. Casas

9. Academic collaboration in USA
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ILLINOIS
Prof. L. A. Bergman
CUNY - Prof. M. Ghosn
Prof. D. Jauregui
NIST - Prof. E. Simiu
Dr. D. Duthinh
CALTECH - Prof. J. L. Beck
Prof. J.C. Naito
Prof. M. Barbato

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Academic collaboration in CHINA
HARBIN IT
Prof. Hui LI
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Prof. Y.Q. Ni

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Active contacts with major companies operating in the sector

12. Services
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1. Design, rehabilitation and optimization of structures and infrastructures
2. Design against fire and explosion
3. Forensic engineering
4. Teaching activities
5. Research and development

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1. Design, rehabilitation and optimization of structures and infrastructures
Consulting activities for:
•
Analyis of complex and strategic structures in steel, reinforced concrete, masonry,
precast elements or with innovative materials;
•
Development of numerical finite element models of different scale and complexity;
•
Pedestrian, highway and railway bridges;
•
Tunnels and foundation works;
•
Assessment of the safety and reliability of existing structures and design of the
rehabilitation interventions;
•
Design and optimization of special structural components;
•
Offshore and onshore wind turbines;
•
Performance-based Wind Design and Performance-based Eartquake design;
•
Structural Health Monitoring also with the integration of remote sensing data.

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Review of the final design of the Messina Bridge

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Numerical modeling for the design of wind turbines
0.60
dalong hub
0.40
P
u P (t)
Turbulent
wind
0.20
w P (t)
0.00
1 Dynamic response
-0.20
v P (t)
-0.40
P
-0.60
Vm(zP)
-0.80
Mean
wind
time [s]
-1.00
200
700
1200
1700
2200
2700
3200
2 Design and optimization
Waves
7000
6000
z
H
y
vw(z’) y’
5000
4000
x,x’
Current
3000
z’
2000
Vcur(z’)
1000
h
0
[KN]
Monopile
6.1b
3 Detailing
d
Tripod
Jacket
6.1c
6.3b

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Structural analysis of structures and infrastractures
for the operation of an aqueduct

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Services
Damage assessment with the support of remote sensing techniques
Dati DinSAR da:

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Vulnerability assessment of existing buildings

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Services
Structural analysis for the use of innovative materials in the natural
restoration of a slab supporting a Roman mosaic

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Structural analysis for rib supports for tunnels

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Services
Numerical simulation for an innovative connection for rib supports of tunnels

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Test of the innovative connection

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Services
Numerical analysis for the evaluation of the performance of a connection
between precast elements in case of earthquake

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Services
Numerical analysis for the evaluation of the performance of a connection
between precast elements in case of earthquake

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Services
Modeling and optimization of connections between precast elements

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Modeling and optimization of connections between precast elements
STRAUS
ABAQUS
STRAUS
7
ANSYS

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2. Design against fire and explosion
-
Advanced numerical analysis for design against fire, blast and explosions;
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Vulnerability assessment of existing structures;
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Modeling of actions and loads by means of advanced software

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3) Forensic Engineering
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Technical consulting;
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Back analysis for the interpretation of structural failures and collapse of civil structures;
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Advanced numerical modeling.

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Services
Collapse of the I-35W Bridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2007

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Collapse of a musical stage, Reggio Calabria, 2011

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Services
Back analysis of the collapse of a masonry building, Barletta, 2011

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Assessment of the damage in a building due to the
collapse of the adjacent building Subiaco, 2012

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4) Teaching activity
Teaching activity for Professional Engineers in the field of Civil and Environmental
Engineering:
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Fire Safety Design;
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Design against accidental actions;
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Numerical modeling;
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Steel structures;
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Performance-Based wind Design & Performance-Bases Earthquake Design;
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Technical codes;

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4. Research and development
Stronger was born as an academic spin off and the Research and Development has an
important role. Stronger would like to participate actively as a SME partner in research
proposals.
A presentation that describes Stronger and its expertise for programs as Horizon 2020 is
downloadable at http://www.slideshare.net/StroNGER2012/stro-nger-forhorizon2020.
The main topics are:
•
Sustainability and Henergy Harvesting. StroNGER S.r.l. is working on methodologies and
tools for harvesting energy from the vibrations of civil structures and infrastructures.
•
Resilience assessment – Multihazard approach. StroNGER S.r.l. is developing methods
and quantitative indices for the assesment of the resilience of urban areas, also in case of
multiple actions as fire after an earthquake.
Performance-based Design. StronGER S.r.l. deals with Performance-Based Wind Design
& Performance-Based Earthquake Design of complex structures as long span bridges and
high-rise buildings.
Structural health monitoring and damage assessment
•
•
StroNGER works on advanced methods for the damage assessment of structures and
infrastructures by using traditional approaches and soft computing techniques.
They worked on the assessment of damage with the integration of remote sensing data (in
collaboration with the spin off Survey Lab and the CNR research center IREA):
In collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome the Stronger team joined the benchmark
on the structural health monitoring

35. Services
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Integration of piezoelectric devices to generate energy
by means of air flow present in air conditioning systems

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