PEOPLEDario Bottino Leone

de en it

Dario Bottino Leone

Post-Doc-Researcher
Institute for Renewable Energy

T +39 0471 055 706

dario.bottinoleone@eurac.edu

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5311-4365

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About

Dario Bottino‑Leone completed his doctoral studies (Ph.D. in Building Physics) at the Technical University of Dresden, Institut für Bauklimatik, where he investigated coupled heat–air–moisture transport in historic envelopes. During his Ph.D. he enhanced his expertise through Syracuse and Politecnico di Milano summer schools in the United States and Italy, respectively. Previously, he earned a Master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Catania, followed by dual national habilitations as Architect and Building Engineer, and an Erasmus year at ETSAM‑Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Since 2017 he has been with Eurac Research (Institute for Renewable Energy, Bolzano), contributing to the Retrofit of Historic Buildings and Urban & Regional Energy Systems groups (within the Engineering Energy Economics Team).

His research combines hygrothermal simulation, building‑stock analytics and technical studies to drive net‑zero‑energy renovation of historic and rural buildings. He has authored several WoS/Scopus‑indexed journal papers; he reviews for leading journals such as Building and Environment, Energy & Buildings, Sustainability, Buildings. He is an active member of CIB W040 (Heat & Moisture Transfer in Buildings) and has served on scientific committees and as session chair at international conferences (e.g., SBE Sustainable Built Heritage 2021, SDEWES 2018/2023, SSPCR 2025). Since 2024 he has supervised Master’s theses and examined Ph.D. dissertations.

Links

ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dario-Bottino-Leone?ev=hdr_xprf
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-bottino-leone-phd-2794b462/

Scientific Publications

Journal article2025

Hygrothermal performance of an innovative resource efficient composite masonry unit with embedded biobased insulation

Caruso L, Buhagiar V, Caruana Smith G, Larcher M, Buhagiar S, Bottino Leone D

Marco Larcher, Dario Bottino Leone

The REcycled Stone and Concrete Unit (RESCIU) is an exemplary case study of load-bearing composite masonry units (cMU) based on a unique and registered design that involves sandwiching a 12 mm S-shaped biobased polyurethane foam (BPUF) between C-shaped recycled solid elements, one in Globigerina limestone and the other in concrete.

Thermophysical and hygric material properties were measured under strict laboratory conditions and their related error analysis was calculated. To complement this, a locally recorded hourly weather file for Malta (representative location of Mediterranean climate) was used to implement boundary conditions for both 1D and 3D hygrothermal simulations.

The measurement of U-value on RESCIU prototypes via hotbox apparatus converged to (averaged) 1.39 ± 0.19 W/(m²K). The 3D simulation, validated in a precedent publication, aligned closely with hotbox results yielding an U_RESCIU of 1.40 W/(m²K).

1D assessments with 20 mm of the S-shaped cavity led to a reduction of theoretical thermal transmittance of up to 0.71 W/(m²K) and a prolonged thermal lag up of up to eleven hours (UNI EN ISO 13786). In 3D this value is slightly lower with U_RESCIU of 0.65 W/(m²K). However, periodic thermal transmittance Y_ieRESCIU of 0.29 W/(m²K) in 1D mode was found overestimated compared to 0.43 W/(m²K) obtained in 3D, while the thermal lag is accurate (9 h in 3D and 9.7 in 1D).

1D hygrothermal steady state assessments (UNI EN ISO 13788) reported neither the risk of developing surface mold (1D only) nor interstitial condensation (Glaser method), the latter calculated in both 1D and 3D mode for June (summer condition) and December (winter condition). In June 1D and 3D simulations results are very similar as opposed to higher discrepancies detected in December, with 1D simulation consistently underestimating DBT, RH, p_e for the vertical sections characterized by one layer of insulation. This confirms the RESCIU block is suitable for applications in Mediterranean climate.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116015

Journal article2021

Hygrothermal characterization of a fictitious homogenized porous material to describe multiphase heat and moisture transport in massive historic walls

Bottino Leone D, Larcher M, Troi A, Grunewald J

Marco Larcher, Alexandra Troi, Dario Bottino Leone

Project: Realization and start up of the new laboratory "HyLab" for the hygrothermal characterizzion of building materials and components

The hygrothermal analysis of historical building envelopes is an important part of renovation concepts for existing buildings. Using dynamic hygrothermal simulation is an effective approach to predict moisture-related damage, such as the risk of mold infestation or susceptibility to frost damage. However, modeling a historic wall of brick / stone and mortar joints with a detailed two- or three-dimensional model is complex and time-consuming. Old masonry is often simplified into a one-dimensional stone / brick layer in hygrothermal simulations, whereby mortar joints are neglected. In a previous work, we identified cases where this method led to unacceptable simplifications. This study presents a method to replace a complex historical masonry (our reference), which consists of different material components with a fictitious homogenized porous material. The aim is to optimize the material properties of the homogenized material so that the behavior of the reference model is well approximated for the most important applications. The method is applied and validated on nine combination of three mortars with five different stones and bricks. Finally, the satisfactory behavior of the homogenized material under dynamic conditions is verified for the praxis example of an internally insulated wall in different climatic conditions by comparing it with its two-dimensional reference model. The improvements in using the developed method with respect to the one-dimensional stone/brick layer approach are considerable especially for hygrometric parameter and are more pronounced the more different the hygrothermal properties of the materials in the reference model are.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121497

Journal article2021

Impact of climatic parameters on rain protection layer design for refurbished historic buildings

Bottino Leone D, Larcher M, Troi A, Grunewald J

Marco Larcher, Alexandra Troi, Dario Bottino Leone

Project: Realization and start up of the new laboratory "HyLab" for the hygrothermal characterizzion of building materials and components

The application of interior insulation systems consistently increases energy performance of historic buildings, but also severely affects the drying potential of their envelopes reducing the evaporation potential towards the internal side. This reduction is even more critical in façades interested by a significant amount of driving rain. To face this problem, current recommendations and standards suggest the replacement of the original plaster with a “water repellent” one especially in climates with a high yearly horizontal precipitation. However, since this kind intervention represents a big economic and environmental cost, more specific studies are needed to identify whether it is always necessary. In fact, current approach excludes the impact of solar radiation, which may play a significant role for evaporation phenomena. Moreover, wind effect may be taken into account by considering the wind driven rain instead of horizontal rain amount. In order to investigate these hypotheses, this simulation-based study analyzes hygrothermal performances of an internally insulated wall in several European climates and latitudes, with similar annual precipitation and different solar radiation amount and wind conditions. Results show that considering wind action is important to give a more precise estimation of the effective rain impacting the façade. Moreover, water repellent exterior plasters could be avoided in façades with consistent amounts of solar radiation. Consequently, there is currently the need of a more elaborated method for identifying the necessity of replacing the historic external plasters; this method should include external climate factors, as e.g. solar radiation and wind action.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111688

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Journal article2025

Hygrothermal performance of an innovative resource efficient composite masonry unit with embedded biobased insulation

Caruso L, Buhagiar V, Caruana Smith G, Larcher M, Buhagiar S, Bottino Leone D

Marco Larcher, Dario Bottino Leone

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116015

Dario Bottino Leone

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Scientific Publications

Hygrothermal performance of an innovative resource efficient composite masonry unit with embedded biobased insulation

Hygrothermal characterization of a fictitious homogenized porous material to describe multiphase heat and moisture transport in massive historic walls

Impact of climatic parameters on rain protection layer design for refurbished historic buildings

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Scientific Publications

Hygrothermal performance of an innovative resource efficient composite masonry unit with embedded biobased insulation

Hygrothermal characterization of a fictitious homogenized porous material to describe multiphase heat and moisture transport in massive historic walls

Impact of climatic parameters on rain protection layer design for refurbished historic buildings