Dear Colleagues,

The environmental footprint and lasting functionality of structures are widely recognized as paramount issues in the civil engineering field.

Regarding the first aspect, civil structures play a key role in CO₂ emission, energy consumption, and waste production. With this perspective, the reuse of materials, co-products, and by-products of industrial processes to replace primary raw materials for the fabrication of construction products and systems has attracted the interest of many researchers worldwide.

Regarding the second issue, several events have occurred in recent years, highlighting the weakness of outdated structures and infrastructures, which are generally characterized as highly vulnerable against natural or anthropogenic actions, as well as less durability. On this vein, civil Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) represents a useful technology to achieve the efficient, condition-based maintenance of existing structures, thus extending their lifespan.

In this framework, smart composite materials, which quickly respond to various external stimuli, represent an attractive solution for environmentally friendly and intelligent civil structures. One examples of a smart material is self-sensing cementitious composites. Their capability to provide strain measures when embedded in structures makes them highly attractive for civil SHM applications, even if further developments are still needed. Some other smart materials are cement-based self-healing materials, which are able to achieve the partial or total self-closure of cracks, thus restoring the durability of the structure, and alkali-activated materials or geopolymers, which are eventually given functional inclusions for thermal purposes.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to publish original research and review articles about the recent advances on the following:

• Sustainable construction materials with special functions;
• The reuse of waste materials and recycled aggregates for sustainable structures;
• Innovative materials and systems for combined energy and structural performance improvement;
• Self-sensing cementitious composites and their applications for SHM;
• Applications of alkali-activated materials in civil engineering;
• Self-healing cementitious materials.

Dr. Paolino Cassese
Dr. Carlo Rainieri
Guest Editors

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• functionalized materials
• structural health monitoring
• self-sensing composites
• cement-based materials
• alkali-activated materials
• self-healing
• energy improvement
• structural retrofitting