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Buildings
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Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings
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Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 16523

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Arslan Akbar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Interests: sustainable cementitious materials; engineered cement composites; alkali-activated materials; environmental impact assessment; machine learning and artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The building industry is one of the largest resource-consuming industries in the world, and encompasses materials extraction, energy consumption and waste generation. Currently, the construction sector is experienceing a critical phase where a balance must be achieved between present social demands and the environmental needs of future generations. Therefore, sustainable building materials and innovations in their design are crucial for reducing environmental burdens. This Special Issue is devoted to publishing papers that describe the most significant research on building materials, with a focus on advanced, sustainable materials, their environmental impact assessment and the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to cause innovation and advancement in the design of these materials.  I invite you to submit high-quality research and review articles focussing on, but not limited to, advanced sustainable materials in buildings.

Dr. Arslan Akbar
Guest Editor

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 2600 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

  • sustainable materials
  • innovative materials
  • ecoefficient binders
  • engineered cementitious composites
  • fiber-reinforced cement composites
  • alkali-activated materials
  • artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
  • life-cycle assessment
  • energy storage materials for building application

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 6901 KiB  
Article
Mechanical and Thermal Behavior of Compressed Earth Bricks Reinforced with Lime and Coal Aggregates
by Mohamed Lahdili, Fatima-Ezzahra El Abbassi, Siham Sakami and Ahmed Aamouche
Buildings 2022, 12(10), 1730; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12101730 - 19 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1618
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate the effect of coal aggregates (CA) in the compressed earth bricks (CEBs) in order to reduce the footprint of the coal industry. For this purpose, three soils of the Marrakesh region were studied in terms of their [...] Read more.
The present study aims to investigate the effect of coal aggregates (CA) in the compressed earth bricks (CEBs) in order to reduce the footprint of the coal industry. For this purpose, three soils of the Marrakesh region were studied in terms of their chemical composition, and their thermal and mechanical behavior. Then, the selected soil was mixed with different amounts of CA (10%, 15%, and 20% by weight) and compressed in a Brava machine to produce (CEBs). A significant drop in the specific weight of our CEBs was registered with the increase of CA percentage. Besides, the compressive strength showed a linear drop with the increase of (CA) percentages. In fact, for bricks with 20% of CA, the decrease in compressive strength reaches 32.95% in respect to the reference bricks. Moreover, CA showed interesting gain in thermal conductivity reaching 60% while the diminution in compressive strength was still acceptable according to norms in the state of the art. Thereby, we can say that using CA in earth bricks can, with the suitable architecture, contribute not only to reduce the building charges, but also to provide a good thermal comfort without increasing the thickness of the walls. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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14 pages, 5781 KiB  
Article
Study on the Strength and Microcosmic Characteristics of C50 High-Performance Concrete (HPC) Containing Manufactured Sands
by Yafeng Hu, Yang Wei, Longlong Zhao, Wenhua Zhang and Si Chen
Buildings 2022, 12(10), 1657; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12101657 - 11 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1366
Abstract
In this paper, C50 high-performance concrete (HPC) containing manufactured sand was prepared. First, three different gradations of aggregates and three different types of admixtures with significant differences in specific surface area, porosity, and water ratios were used to prepare nine groups of concrete [...] Read more.
In this paper, C50 high-performance concrete (HPC) containing manufactured sand was prepared. First, three different gradations of aggregates and three different types of admixtures with significant differences in specific surface area, porosity, and water ratios were used to prepare nine groups of concrete mixtures. Second, the effect of the aggregate gradation and admixture on the workability of fresh HPC and compressive strength of hydration-hardened HPC was investigated. Finally, microscopic tests were conducted to examine the hydration product pore structure (mercury injection porosimeter (MIP)), hydration product surface appearance (scanning electron microscope (SEM)), and element qualitative analysis (energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS)), and the mechanism of the C50 HPC was discussed. The results show that the types of gradation aggregates and admixtures significantly affect the workability and strength of C50 HPC. When the slump of fresh HPC is specified, the workability of the mixture can be controlled by a homemade high-performance lignin sulfonate water reducer. The aggregate gradation biased toward the median of the gradation curve can be used to prepare the C50 HPC. In this paper, the maximum compressive strength of C50 HPC is 58.3 MPa at 90 days. In addition, the microscopic test results show that the composite compound of C50 HPC has a dense hydration product and a high bond strength interface transition zone (ITZ). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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21 pages, 7748 KiB  
Article
A Comprehensive Study on the Effect of Regular and Staggered Openings on the Seismic Performance of Shear Walls
by Ahmed Saeed, Hadee Mohammed Najm, Amer Hassan, Shaker Qaidi, Mohanad Muayad Sabri Sabri and Nuha S. Mashaan
Buildings 2022, 12(9), 1293; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12091293 - 23 Aug 2022
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3222
Abstract
Shear walls have high strength and stiffness, which could be used at the same time to resist large horizontal loads and weight loads, making them pretty beneficial in several structural engineering applications. The shear walls could be included with openings, such as doors [...] Read more.
Shear walls have high strength and stiffness, which could be used at the same time to resist large horizontal loads and weight loads, making them pretty beneficial in several structural engineering applications. The shear walls could be included with openings, such as doors and windows, for relevant functional requirements. In the current study, a building of G + 13 stories with RC shear walls with and without openings has been investigated using ETABS Software. The seismic analysis is carried out for the determination of parameters like shear forces, drift, base shear, and story displacement for numerous models. The regular and staggered openings of the shear wall have been considered variables in the models. The dynamic analysis is carried out with the help of ETABS software. It has been observed that shear walls without openings models perform better than other models, and this is in agreement with the previous studies published in this area. This investigation also shows that the seismic behaviour of the shear wall with regular openings provides a close result to the shear wall with staggered openings. At the roof, the displacement of the model with regular openings was 38.99 mm and approximately 39.163 mm for the model with staggered openings. However, the model without a shear wall experienced a displacement of about 56 mm at the roof. Generally, it can be concluded that the openings have a substantial effect on the seismic behaviour of the shear wall, and that should be taken into consideration during the construction design. However, the type of opening (regular or staggered) has a slight effect on the behaviour of shear walls. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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14 pages, 5375 KiB  
Article
Determination of Tensile Strength at Crack Initiation in Dynamic Brazilian Disc Test for Concrete-like Materials
by Jie Wang and Junlin Tao
Buildings 2022, 12(6), 797; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060797 - 10 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1696
Abstract
Concrete is a brittle material whose tensile strength is about one-tenth of its compressive strength. Tensile strength is a key parameter for concrete under impact loading. When a turning point occurs before peak load in the load–time curve from the dynamic Brazilian disc [...] Read more.
Concrete is a brittle material whose tensile strength is about one-tenth of its compressive strength. Tensile strength is a key parameter for concrete under impact loading. When a turning point occurs before peak load in the load–time curve from the dynamic Brazilian disc test, there is no basis for choosing the turning point or the peak load to calculate the tensile strength. The objective of this study is determining the crack initiation tensile stress at the turning point or the peak. The method contrasts the time duration from Digital image correlation (DIC) and the load–time curve from a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system in order to obtain the load value when cracking first appears. The crack initiation tensile strength is less than the peak strength for concrete specimens with a turning point in the load–time curve. The crack initiation tensile strength is equal to the peak strength for concrete specimens without a turning point in the load–time curve. The proposed method is successfully applied to determine crack initiation of concrete specimens and obtain tensile strength at crack initiation of concrete specimens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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20 pages, 5180 KiB  
Article
Predicting Marshall Flow and Marshall Stability of Asphalt Pavements Using Multi Expression Programming
by Hamad Hassan Awan, Arshad Hussain, Muhammad Faisal Javed, Yanjun Qiu, Raid Alrowais, Abdeliazim Mustafa Mohamed, Dina Fathi and Abdullah Mossa Alzahrani
Buildings 2022, 12(3), 314; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030314 - 07 Mar 2022
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4053
Abstract
The traditional method to obtain optimum bitumen content and the relevant parameters of asphalt pavements entails time-consuming, complicated and expensive laboratory procedures and requires skilled personnel. This research study uses innovative and advanced machine learning techniques, i.e., Multi-Expression Programming (MEP), to develop empirical [...] Read more.
The traditional method to obtain optimum bitumen content and the relevant parameters of asphalt pavements entails time-consuming, complicated and expensive laboratory procedures and requires skilled personnel. This research study uses innovative and advanced machine learning techniques, i.e., Multi-Expression Programming (MEP), to develop empirical predictive models for the Marshall parameters, i.e., Marshall Stability (MS) and Marshall Flow (MF) for Asphalt Base Course (ABC) and Asphalt Wearing Course (AWC) of flexible pavements. A comprehensive, reliable and wide range of datasets from various road projects in Pakistan were produced. The collected datasets contain 253 and 343 results for ABC and AWC, respectively. Eight input parameters were considered for modeling MS and MF. The overall performance of the developed models was assessed using various statistical measures in conjunction with external validation. The relationship between input and output parameters was determined by performing parametric analysis, and the results of trends were found to be consistent with earlier research findings stating that the developed predicted models are well trained. The results revealed that developed models are superior and efficient in terms of prediction and generalization capability for output parameters, as evident by the correlation coefficient (R) (in this case >0.90) for both ABC and AWC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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Review

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34 pages, 10284 KiB  
Review
Influence of Elevated Temperatures on the Mechanical Performance of Sustainable-Fiber-Reinforced Recycled Aggregate Concrete: A Review
by Wisal Ahmed, C. W. Lim and Arslan Akbar
Buildings 2022, 12(4), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12040487 - 14 Apr 2022
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3337
Abstract
In recent times, the applications of fiber-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (FRAC) in practical engineering have gained greater popularity due to its superior mechanical strength and fracture properties. To apply FRAC in buildings and other infrastructures, a thorough understanding of its residual mechanical properties [...] Read more.
In recent times, the applications of fiber-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (FRAC) in practical engineering have gained greater popularity due to its superior mechanical strength and fracture properties. To apply FRAC in buildings and other infrastructures, a thorough understanding of its residual mechanical properties and durability after exposure to fire is highly important. According to the established research, the properties and volume fractions of reinforcing fiber materials, replacement levels of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), and heating condition would affect the thermal–mechanical properties of FRAC. This review paper aims to present a thorough and updated review of the mechanical performance at an elevated temperature and post-fire durability of FRAC reinforced with various types of fiber material, specifically steel fiber (SF), polypropylene (PP) fiber, and basalt fiber (BF). More explicitly, in this review article the residual mechanical properties of FRAC, such as compressive strength, splitting tensile capacity, modulus of elasticity, mass loss, spalling, and durability after exposure to elevated temperatures, are discussed. Furthermore, this study also encompasses the relationship among the dosages of fibers, replacement levels of recycled aggregate, and the relative residual mechanical properties of FRAC that would help in the optimum selection of the fiber content. Conclusively, this study elaborately reviews and summarizes the relevant and recent literature on recycled aggregate concrete containing SF, PP fiber, and BF. The study further provides a realistic comparison of these fibers in terms of the residual mechanical performance and durability of FRAC that would help in their future enhancements and applications in practical engineering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sustainable Materials in Buildings)
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