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Buildings
Special Issues
Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure
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Special Issue "Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2023 | Viewed by 7661

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Luigi Di Sarno

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Industrial Design, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5TR, UK
Interests: sustainable materials; resilient infrastructure; self-healing; ductility; low-carbon; self-sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Existing reinforced concrete (RC) infrastructures, which were built more than three decades ago, have been exposed to harsh environment and climate change effects. Such an infrastructure system is affected by degradation phenomena, e.g., carbonation and corrosion, which, in turn, lower its structural capacity under both ordinary loadings and extreme events, such as strong wind, floods, heavy snow and earthquakes. Increased traffic loads due to the expansion of urban areas and population growth also expose ageing infrastructure to continuous threats, thus further jeopardizing their structural safety.
Novel and sustainable materials are being investigated at the micro- and macro-scale; their use in structural engineering applications may provide viable solutions for the creation of resilient infrastructure. The selection of such innovative materials is often undermined by a lack of confidence from designers and contractors or the gaps that exist in current building codes and recommendations, which do not include adequate design provisions. However, the retrofitting of existing ageing infrastructure is a high-priority agenda for sustainable growth and to enhance community resilience, especially in densely populated areas worldwide.
This Special Issue aims to collect the most recent advances in the experimental and numerical analysis of novel sustainable materials for a next-generation, resilient RC infrastructure.  
Potential topics include:

  • Experimental tests on novel sustainable materials for structural retrofitting;
  • Numerical simulation of an existing infrastructure retrofitted with sustainable materials;
  • Cost analysis of retrofitting strategies for ageing infrastructure using different sustainable structural materials and novel technologies;
  • Risk analysis of an as-built infrastructure retrofitted with innovative sustainable materials.

Original contributions, case studies, or state-of-the-art review works are encouraged for submission.

Dr. Luigi Di Sarno
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
  • resilient infrastructure
  • self-healing
  • ductility
  • low-carbon
  • self-sensing
  • retrofitting
  • structural performance
  • innovative materials

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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Article
Experimental Tests on Lightweight Cement Mortar and Concrete with Recycled Plastic Wastes
by
Emilia Meglio
,
Antonio Davino
and
Antonio Formisano
Buildings 2023, 13(5), 1181; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13051181 - 29 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 713
Abstract
The management of plastic waste has become a fundamental issue in recent decades and several studies have focused on finding proper solutions to recycle and reuse these secondary raw materials in different sectors. Using plastic waste in the building sector allows for long-term [...] Read more.
The management of plastic waste has become a fundamental issue in recent decades and several studies have focused on finding proper solutions to recycle and reuse these secondary raw materials in different sectors. Using plastic waste in the building sector allows for long-term application and reduces the number of times the recycling process is needed. This research focuses on experimenting with two building products, namely lightweight screed and concrete, with the addition of plastic waste in the form of irregular granules. The screed was produced by adding plastic granules of different sizes, while the concrete was produced by replacing different percentages of the coarse and fine aggregates with plastic granules and pulverized plastic. The screed has been tested under compressive and three-point bending tests, while the concrete has only been tested under compressive tests. The results have shown that the addition of plastic waste in both products led to the desired weight reduction. On one hand, plastic waste have provided a decrease in both tensile (−16%) and compressive (−25%) strengths of the screed with an increase of ultimate tensile strain (+60%). On the other hand, the only acceptable concrete mixture resulted to be the one with 25% of aggregates substitution, which exhibited a decrease in compressive strength (−40%) and an increase of ultimate strain (+38%), whereas samples with higher percentages of plastic aggregates have been not considered to be suitable as building materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure)
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Article
Low Carbon Bacterial Self-Healing Concrete
by
João Miguel Peres Medeiros
and
Luigi Di Sarno
Buildings 2022, 12(12), 2226; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122226 - 14 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1352
Abstract
A greener and more sustainable option is proposed to shift the construction paradigm of high embedded carbon values in concrete and the frequency of repairs when it cracks. Using low-carbon concrete with a bacterial self-healing agent can reduce the embedded carbon value while [...] Read more.
A greener and more sustainable option is proposed to shift the construction paradigm of high embedded carbon values in concrete and the frequency of repairs when it cracks. Using low-carbon concrete with a bacterial self-healing agent can reduce the embedded carbon value while adding value to the structure. This paper aims to evaluate the interaction of a bacterial self-healing agent on the mechanical properties of low-carbon concrete, specifically 50% Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) as an Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) replacement. A range of tests is conducted to test the evolution of mechanical properties throughout the early stages of curing for 7, 14, and 28 days. Such tests included the evaluation of compression, flexural, tensile splitting strength and dynamic elastic modulus. The results of the experiments demonstrate that early stages of GGBS mixes exhibit lower compressive capacity throughout the 28-day mark but also indicate their potential to increase sharply and surpass the control mix values after 28 days. The self-healing agent interacts slightly with the GGBS mixes, further reducing the mechanical properties in the early curing stages. However, GGBS mixes increase sharply after the 28-day mark, with the added benefit of further reducing carbon emissions by extending design life and durability. In theory, the newly developed concrete can seal cracks up to 0.3 mm (up to 0.8 mm if using the maximum dosage) but seal wider cracks from laboratory results. These changes imply that using GGBS as a replacement for OPC is viable for structures that do not require high compressive values in the early curing stages but after the 28-day mark while reducing the carbon emission values substantially, in this case, 40%, or up to 50% if using a self-healing agent. This low-carbon concrete is thus a sustainable and resilient material, especially for retrofitting existing reinforced concrete infrastructure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure)
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Article
Utilization of Bio-Mineral Carbonation for Enhancing CO2 Sequestration and Mechanical Properties in Cementitious Materials
by
Hayeon Kim
and
Hyeongmin Son
Buildings 2022, 12(6), 744; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060744 - 30 May 2022
Viewed by 1270
Abstract
Microorganisms can perform mineral carbonation in various metabolic pathways, and this process can be utilized in the field of construction materials. The present study investigated the role of bio-mediated mineral carbonation in carbon sequestration performance and mechanical properties of cementitious materials. Bacterial-mediated ureolysis [...] Read more.
Microorganisms can perform mineral carbonation in various metabolic pathways, and this process can be utilized in the field of construction materials. The present study investigated the role of bio-mediated mineral carbonation in carbon sequestration performance and mechanical properties of cementitious materials. Bacterial-mediated ureolysis and CO2 hydration metabolism were selected as the main mechanisms for the mineral carbonation, and a microorganism, generating both urease and carbonic anhydrase, was incorporated into cementitious materials in the form of a bacterial culture solution. Four paste specimens were cured in water or carbonation conditions for 28 days, and a compressive strength test and a mercury intrusion porosimetry analysis were performed to investigate the changes in mechanical properties and microstructures. The obtained results showed that the pore size of the specimens incorporating bacteria was reduced by the precipitation of CaCO3 through the mineral carbonation process, thereby improving the mechanical properties of the paste specimens, regardless of the curing conditions. In addition, in the case of the paste specimens cured in carbonation conditions, more amorphous CaCO3 was observed and a larger amount of CaCO3 in the specimens incorporating the bacteria was measured than in the specimens without bacteria. This is attributed to promotion of the inflow and diffusion of CO2 via mineral carbonation through bacterial CO2 hydration metabolism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure)
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Review

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Review
Low-Carbon Self-Healing Concrete: State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Opportunities
by
Danah Albuhairi
and
Luigi Di Sarno
Buildings 2022, 12(8), 1196; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081196 - 09 Aug 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2910
Abstract
The sustainability of the construction industry is a priority in innovations made towards mitigating its notoriously high carbon emissions. Developments in low-carbon concrete technology are of peak interest today under the scrutiny of emerging policy pressures. Concrete is the external part of most [...] Read more.
The sustainability of the construction industry is a priority in innovations made towards mitigating its notoriously high carbon emissions. Developments in low-carbon concrete technology are of peak interest today under the scrutiny of emerging policy pressures. Concrete is the external part of most structures vulnerable to permanent degradation and weathering, the possibility of an intrinsic restoration of its engineering properties promises unprecedented advancements towards structural resilience. Existing research in self-healing concrete (SHC) has often concerned the scope of material development and evaluation with inconclusive field testing, hindering its progress towards structural feasibility. This paper presents an overview of recent progress in SHC, and possible opportunities and challenges of popular healing systems are discussed. Moreover, trends are observed to investigate SHC’s influence on the engineering properties of concrete, and future projections of SHC are suggested with identification of potential research needs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials for Resilient Infrastructure)
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