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Advanced Composites and Sustainability
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Advanced Composites and Sustainability

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 8342

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Yuan Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing (SDIM), Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: additive manufacturing; composites; modelling; design optimisation; metamaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the Glasgow Climate Change Conference attracted worldwide attention in 2021, carbon-neutrality is quickly becoming a critical global priority for human beings. With this in mind, the desire for resource and energy sustainability has grown rapidly, and a series of strict zero-carbon legislation targets are in place to mitigate industrial impact on the environment.

In this context, advanced and sustainable composites have already been supporting the drive towards a carbon-neutral future, e.g.:

  • Light-weighting to reduce emissions (e.g., new composite materials and structures);
  • Advanced manufacturing and design for high-performance composite products (e.g., 3D printing technology and novel high-performance design methods);
  • Life-cycle assessment to predict and increase the lifespan of products (e.g., fatigue, corrosion resistance and durability analysis);
  • Recycling technology and cradle-to-grave design (e.g., advanced thermoplastic composites, polymer composites, nanocomposites, new recyclable materials and recycling techniques);
  • Condition health monitoring or prediction for sustainability (e.g., non-destructive testing, computational analysis and prediction, repair).

This Special Issue is dedicated to the field of novel and engineering solutions in the sustainability of advanced composite materials and structures. In summary, the Special Issue has a particular focus on, but is not limited to, advanced composites with respect to eco-friendly sustainable composites, polymer composites, fibre reinforced polymers (FRP), recycling techniques, life-cycle assessment, light-weighting, advanced manufacturing and design for higher performance products, cradle-to-grave design, and condition monitoring or prediction for sustainability.

In this Special Issue, research-, development-, and application-related submissions sharing promising techniques and strategies on the topic of composites science and technology, composites design and manufacturing, composites sustainability, and all other related domains are welcome.

This Special Issue aims to present original articles, reviews, short communications, research notes, analyses, and case studies.

Dr. Yuan Chen
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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/sustainable/thermopalstic composites
  •  advanced manufacturing
  •  fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)
  •  life-cycle assessment
  •  light-weighting
  •  structural health monitoring
  •  polymer composites
  •  cradle-to-grave design/recycling
  •  composites processing and characterisation
  •  computational analysis and prediction

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 70105 KiB  
Article
Crashworthiness and Failure Analyses of FRP Composite Tubes under Low Velocity Transverse Impact
by Guangkai Wei, Kunkun Fu and Yuan Chen
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010056 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1294
Abstract
Currently, FRP composite tubes are drawing increasing attention in many industrial applications, due to their excellent mechanical and lightweight properties, with reduced energy consumption and enhanced sustainability. This study investigates the failure mechanisms and crashworthiness performance of glass and carbon fibre reinforced polymer [...] Read more.
Currently, FRP composite tubes are drawing increasing attention in many industrial applications, due to their excellent mechanical and lightweight properties, with reduced energy consumption and enhanced sustainability. This study investigates the failure mechanisms and crashworthiness performance of glass and carbon fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP and CFRP) composite tubes under low velocity transverse impact. Finite element methods were developed to establish numerical models to predict the failure responses of FRP composite tubes with a complex ply sequence of both woven and unidirectional layers. In the modelling, continuum damage mechanics and cohesive zone method were used to calculate the intralaminar and interlaminar failure behaviours, respectively, in FRP composite tubes. The numerical models were validated by corresponding experiments, and the effects of the impact energy and material type were investigated. The experimental results show that the initial impact energy does not significantly affect the specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak force (PF) of GFRP composite tubes, and the SEA and PF are generally around 0.5 kJ/kg and 600 N, respectively, when the impact energy varies from 10 J to 50 J. Failure mechanism analyses show that GFRP tubes and CFRP tubes with totally unidirectional plies present global bending deformation with significant matrix damage, and CFRP tubes with “hybrid layer type” exhibit local penetration with severe fibre and matrix damage. The crashworthiness analyses indicate that CFRP tubes perform better in SEA while GFRP tubes possess smaller PF when subjected to low velocity transverse impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composites and Sustainability)
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22 pages, 10681 KiB  
Article
Proposal of New Construction Material: Polymer-Stabilized Gold Ore Tailings Composite
by Giovanna Monique Alelvan, José Wilson dos Santos Ferreira, Michéle Dal Toé Casagrande and Nilo Cesar Consoli
Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13648; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013648 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1387
Abstract
Recent events involving the rupture of tailings dams in Brazil have motivated the search for alternatives to incorporate the material into the production chain. At the same time, the consumption of raw materials by the civil construction sector is high, requiring the incorporation [...] Read more.
Recent events involving the rupture of tailings dams in Brazil have motivated the search for alternatives to incorporate the material into the production chain. At the same time, the consumption of raw materials by the civil construction sector is high, requiring the incorporation of alternative materials to achieve sustainable development. Thus, this paper proposes a new construction material based on the mechanical and microstructural behavior of polymer-stabilized and fiber-reinforced gold ore tailings composites. Unconfined Compressive Strength tests were performed on different polymer contents (6% and 9%), dry unit weights (1.7 g/cm³ and 1.8 g/cm³), and curing periods (7 and 28 days), according to 2K Experimental Design. Microstructural tests were performed using X-ray Diffraction, X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and X-ray Micro-Computed Tomography. The results demonstrate that adding polymer increased tailings’ mechanical behaviors by forming packages with the lamellar particle, which was observed in microstructural tests. The polymeric composites’ brittle behavior was improved using fiber insertion, leading to an increase of the strain energy absorption capacity. The polymer-stabilized and fiber-reinforced gold ore tailings composites demonstrated its potential as a construction material, especially in landfill structures, tailings stockpiles, and paving base layers. The association of mechanical and microstructural analysis established a new understanding of the effect of the stabilizer and the reinforcement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composites and Sustainability)
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18 pages, 9920 KiB  
Article
Improving Stress-Strain Behavior of Waste Aggregate Concrete Using Affordable Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Composites
by Kittipoom Rodsin, Nazam Ali, Panuwat Joyklad, Krisada Chaiyasarn, Ahmed W. Al Zand and Qudeer Hussain
Sustainability 2022, 14(11), 6611; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14116611 - 28 May 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1422
Abstract
Several studies have highlighted the potential of crushed brick aggregates in non-structural concrete. This is because crushed brick aggregates offer substandard mechanical properties in comparison to natural stone aggregates. Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets have been known to overcome this issue. However, [...] Read more.
Several studies have highlighted the potential of crushed brick aggregates in non-structural concrete. This is because crushed brick aggregates offer substandard mechanical properties in comparison to natural stone aggregates. Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets have been known to overcome this issue. However, enormous costs associated with synthetic FRPs may limit their use in several low-budget applications. This study recognizes this issue and propose a cost-effective solution in the form of low-cost glass fiber (LC-GFRP) sheets. Two types of brick aggregates (i.e., solid-clay and hollow-clay brick aggregates) were used to fabricate concrete by replacing 50% of natural aggregates. Experimental results of 32 non-circular specimens were reported in this study. To overcome the substandard mechanical properties of recycled brick aggregate concrete (RBAC), specimens were strengthened with 2, 4, and 6 layers of LC-GFRP sheets. Noticeable improvements in ultimate compressive stress and corresponding strain were observed and were found to correlate positively with the number of LC-GFRP sheets. It was found that 4 and 6 layers of LC-GFRP sheets imparted significant axial ductility irrespective of the brick aggregate type and inherent concrete strength. Several existing stress-strain models for confined concrete were considered to predict ultimate confined compressive stress and corresponding strain. Accuracy of existing models was assessed by mean of the ratio of analytical to experimental values and associated standard deviations. For ultimate stress predictions, the lowest mean value of the ratio of analytical to experimental ultimate compressive stress was 1.07 with a standard deviation of 0.10. However, none of the considered models was able to provide good estimates of ultimate strains. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composites and Sustainability)
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Review

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20 pages, 1498 KiB  
Review
A Comprehensive Review of the Effects of Different Simulated Environmental Conditions and Hybridization Processes on the Mechanical Behavior of Different FRP Bars
by Mohammadamin Mirdarsoltany, Farid Abed, Reza Homayoonmehr and Seyed Vahid Alavi Nezhad Khalil Abad
Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8834; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148834 - 19 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1700
Abstract
When it comes to sustainability, steel rebar corrosion has always been a big issue, especially when they are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, such as marine and coastal environments. Moreover, the steel industry is to blame for being one of the largest producers [...] Read more.
When it comes to sustainability, steel rebar corrosion has always been a big issue, especially when they are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, such as marine and coastal environments. Moreover, the steel industry is to blame for being one of the largest producers of carbon in the world. To supplant this material, utilizing fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) and hybrid FRP bars as a reinforcement in concrete elements is proposed because of their appropriate mechanical behavior, such as their durability, high tensile strength, high-temperature resistance, and lightweight-to-strength ratio. This method not only improves the long performance of reinforced concrete (RC) elements but also plays an important role in achieving sustainability, thus reducing the maintenance costs of concrete structures. On the other hand, FRP bars do not show ductility under tensile force. This negative aspect of FRP bars causes a sudden failure in RC structures, acting as a stumbling block to the widespread use of these bars in RC elements. This research, at first, discusses the effects of different environmental solutions, such as alkaline, seawater, acid, salt, and tap water on the tensile and bonding behavior of different fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars, ranging from glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars, and basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars, to carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) bars, and aramid fiber-reinforced polymer (AFRP) bars. Furthermore, the influence of the hybridization process on the ductility, tensile, and elastic modulus of FRP bars is explored. The study showed that the hybridization process improves the tensile strength of FRP bars by up to 224% and decreases their elastic modulus by up to 73%. Finally, future directions on FRP and hybrid FRP bars are recommended. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composites and Sustainability)
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Other

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21 pages, 3474 KiB  
Technical Note
Environmental Impact Comparison Analysis between a Traditional Hot Mixed Asphalt (HMA) and with the Addition of Recycled Post-Consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate (RPET) through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Methodology
by Mario Rene Rivera Osorto and Michéle Dal Toé Casagrande
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1102; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021102 - 06 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1531
Abstract
The present study presents a cradle-to-built life cycle assessment (LCA) for a road pavements structure of hot mixed asphalt (HMA) with recycled post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) addition through the “dry” process using a comparison analysis between declared units equivalent of 1 ton of [...] Read more.
The present study presents a cradle-to-built life cycle assessment (LCA) for a road pavements structure of hot mixed asphalt (HMA) with recycled post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) addition through the “dry” process using a comparison analysis between declared units equivalent of 1 ton of produced mix and functional units equivalent of 1 m2 pavement variants under the Brazilian “National Design Methodology” (MeDiNa), in contrast with a conventional mix variant. The Tool TRACI 2.0 for reducing and assessing chemical and other environmental impacts was applied for each alternative, assessing the impacts into categories such as acidification, eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, global warming potential, human health, ozone depletion, and smog formation. The life-cycle impact assessment results were interpreted through an internal normalization criteria and weighting rule, obtaining an environmental score for each alternative and allowing an easy stakeholder interpretation. Considering the better mechanical properties and overall functional performance of the HMA + RPET mixes, the functional unit comparison on LCA methodology results in savings in all environmental impact categories for each square meter of pavement constructed and ready to use. For the functional units, the HMA + RPET pavement structures (FU 2 and FU 3) resulted in lower environmental scores (ES) with 49.2 and 47.1, respectively, representing a difference of 26.9 and 29 score points in comparison to the conventional pavement structure (FU 1 − C), with an ES of 76.1. It represents 38% of environmental savings in terms of the environmental score in favor of sustainable pavement alternatives. Focusing on the impact in global warming potential, the use of RPET in the HMA mixes for pavement design can result in savings up to 47.44% of impact decrease (20.4 ES) in comparison with the conventional-mix pavement structure proposal. This result supports the environmental sustainability of the HMA + RPET mixes and is a precedent for future research on new geotechnical and pavement alternative materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composites and Sustainability)
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