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Special Issue "Multiphysics Analysis of Construction Materials"

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Dear Colleagues,

The building sector is experiencing a significant transition nowadays intending to ensure resilient, sustainable, and comfortable housing. Research on construction materials is at the center of this transition, considering the importance of reducing their carbon footprint, enhancing resilience, and ensuring comfort for occupants.

This Special Issue is dedicated to highlighting the recent progress in the field of construction and building materials with high-quality papers. This will allow us to extend the existing literature and provide a better understanding of modern construction materials thanks to multi-physic and multi-scale approaches. More precisely, authors in research fields examining the following subjects are invited to submit their research:

Thermal, hygrothermal or mechanical characterization of eco-friendly construction materials.
Experimental or numerical research on innovative construction materials.
LCA and LCC of sustainable building materials and technologies.
Innovative procedures to assess construction materials sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Abderrahim Boudenne
Dr. Hamza Allam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

eco-friendly construction materials
thermal and energy efficiency
mechanical and physical properties
hydric and thermal properties
experimental and numerical modeling
sustainable materials
life cycle costing
life cycle assessment

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Earth-Based Building Incorporating Sargassum muticum Seaweed: Mechanical and Hygrothermal Performances

Houssam Affan

Karim Touati

Mohammed-Hichem Benzaama

Daniel Chateigner

and

Yassine El Mendili

Buildings 2023, 13(4), 932; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13040932 - 31 Mar 2023

Viewed by 811

Abstract

Once the tide recedes and leaves a significant amount of stranded seaweed on the coast, marine macroalgae pose a serious threat to the surrounding area. Through this work, we considered a large-scale application of stranded macroalgae in building construction. For the first time we studied the impact of incorporating Sargassum mitucum seaweed fiber in replacement of flax fiber used for a standard structural cob. Thus, cob specimens were elaborated and analyzed to evaluate their compressive and hygrothermal performances. It was found that the compressive strength and water vapor resistance factors of cob decreased with the algae content. Additionally, the obtained results showed that a cob made with Sargassum muticum algae presented better thermal (insulation and inertia) and hygroscopic properties than those of a cob made with a flax fiber. Indeed, the replacement of flax straw by algae lead to a reduction in the thermal conductivity by 38% when compared to the standard cob with 2.5% of flax straw fiber. Consequently, numerical simulation showed a reduction in the energy needs in buildings made with an algae-based cob when compared to those made with a flax-based cob. This study can contribute to a global environmental and economic issue, i.e., the valorization of brown algae on a large scale. Indeed, the worldwide knows the largest sea of sargassum algae extent measures over 8850 km². This huge mass of brownish algae is expanding every year, which now covers an area from Africa to the Caribbean. It weighs more than 20 million tons and extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Africa. We show that stranded algae, which are considered as wastes, have the ability to improve the mechanical and hygrothermal performance of cob-based material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiphysics Analysis of Construction Materials)

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