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Emerging Technologies to Promote Sustainability and Mitigate Climate Change through...
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Emerging Technologies to Promote Sustainability and Mitigate Climate Change through Asset Lifecycle

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 March 2023) | Viewed by 4953

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Moatasem M. Fayyadh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Asset Lifecycle, Sydney Water, Parramatta, NSW 2150, Australia
Interests: structural health monitoring; rehabilitation of structures; sustainability and material technology
Dr. Karol S. Sikora

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong Dubai, Dubai Knowledge Park, P.O. Box 20183, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Interests: sustainable construction materials
Prof. Dr. Sivakumar Naganathan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Sivasubrmaniya Nadar College of Engineering (Autonouos Institution Affiliated to Anna University), Chennai 603110, India
Interests: concrete technology; structure and material; waste utilization
Dr. Jianli Hao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China
Interests: green buildings assessment; carbon emission; construction waste management; waste-to-energy; waste valorization; cost and benefit analysis of recycled materials; life cycle assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For nearly three decades the United Nations has been bringing together almost every country on earth for annual global climate summits, which are called Conferences of the Parties (COP). At the November 2021 COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, a Climate Pact was agreed to drive action across the globe regarding reducing emissions (mitigation), and helping those already impacted by climate change (adaption). To achieve a significant mitigation and adaption impact, action is required on a massive scale. Since the construction sector is ranked the second biggest industry in the world, just after financial services, with a market value of 12.5 trillion USD annually and growing, it should be one of the main targets for action. Approximately 55% of the world’s population currently live in urban areas and this is expected to increase to 70% by 2050; population growth will result in 2.5 billion more people living in urban areas than there are now. This will mean a huge demand for new high-performance infrastructure, such as multi-story residential and commercial buildings. Already, global infrastructure is growing at an extreme rate, making concrete the single most widely used material in the world. What is alarming is that concrete production is so energy intensive that it generates over 8% of man-made CO2.

Through a lifecycle assessment lens, this Special Issue will focus on innovative construction methods, materials, technologies, and management that will contribute to the mitigation of emissions and provide adaption approaches for handling the impact of climate change.

This Special Issue covers sustainability initiatives through a lifecycle assessment lens, including planning, material preparation and processing, design and construction, maintenance and monitoring, modification and upgrades, and demolishing and waste management—with focus on climate change mitigation.

Articles submitted to this Special Issue will help enrich the existing literature with new material and technologies that help promote sustainability through a lifecycle assessment lens to help mitigate climate change.

Dr. Moatasem M. Fayyadh
Dr. Karol S. Sikora
Prof. Dr. Sivakumar Naganathan
Dr. Jian Li Hao
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. 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

  • green concrete
  • sustainable bitumen
  • engineered wood products
  • waste utilization
  • lean construction
  • lifecycle assessments
  • footprint
  • renewables
  • sustainability
  • carbon capture
  • structural health monitoring
  • durability studies
  • structural strengthening and rehabilitation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1824 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Bitumen Properties through the Utilization of Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate and Tyre Rubber
by Omar R. Khaleel, Laila K. N. Al Gharbi and Moatasem M. Fayyadh
Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9298; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129298 - 08 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1543
Abstract
The disposal of waste accumulation has become a significant challenge in Oman due to the increasing population. Co-biodegradability issues arise from accumulating two types of non-co-biodegradable waste materials: plastic and rubber. Asphalted pavements experience various stresses resulting from high traffic density, leading to [...] Read more.
The disposal of waste accumulation has become a significant challenge in Oman due to the increasing population. Co-biodegradability issues arise from accumulating two types of non-co-biodegradable waste materials: plastic and rubber. Asphalted pavements experience various stresses resulting from high traffic density, leading to numerous problems. This study aims to investigate the impact of incorporating waste plastic and rubber on the engineering properties of bitumen. Specifically, the study examines the addition of waste tyre rubber (4% and 6%) and waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (4% and 6%) to bitumen with a grade of 85/100. Three tests were conducted to evaluate the physical properties of the bitumen, including softening points, penetration tests, and viscosity tests. The results demonstrate that the penetration of bitumen with the addition of 6% waste tyre rubber and PET was 9% lower compared to the 4% mixture for both waste materials. Furthermore, tyre rubber-modified bitumen exhibited higher softening points (79 °C, 2580 s) and viscosity when compared to plain bitumen (48 °C, 1800 s) and PET-modified bitumen (53 °C, 2150 s). These differences indicate that incorporating waste PET and tyre rubber improves the engineering properties of bitumen. This study highlights the importance of increasing the softening point of bitumen in Oman’s high-temperature areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies to Promote Sustainability and Mitigate Climate Change through Asset Lifecycle)
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23 pages, 4410 KiB  
Article
Effect of Damage Severity and Flexural Steel Ratio on CFRP Repaired RC Beams
by Moatasem M. Fayyadh and Hashim Abdul Razak
Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7728; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097728 - 08 May 2023
Viewed by 1204
Abstract
The study aims to investigate the effectiveness and failure modes of using CFRP-bonded sheets as a flexural repair system for RC beams, considering the effect of pre-repair damage levels and flexural steel design limits. This study investigated two different flexural design criteria: RC [...] Read more.
The study aims to investigate the effectiveness and failure modes of using CFRP-bonded sheets as a flexural repair system for RC beams, considering the effect of pre-repair damage levels and flexural steel design limits. This study investigated two different flexural design criteria: RC beams reinforced with the minimum flexural steel limit (ρmin) and RC beams reinforced with the maximum flexural steel limit (ρmax). Additionally, three pre-repair damage levels were considered: design limit load, steel yield limit load, and failure limit load. The study results showed that the RC beams’ repair effectiveness depends on the ratio of the flexural steel provided. Specifically, the beams with a minimum steel ratio demonstrated a higher capacity restoration of 49% to 85% (corresponding to the pre-repair damage level, i.e., design load to failure load), while beams with a maximum steel ratio only achieved a capacity restoration of 15.3% to 28.4%. Regarding failure modes, the beams experienced an intermediate-induced crack (IC) debonding due to pre-repair flexural cracks. Despite the debonding of the CFRP sheets, the beams still had the ability to withstand loads close to their unrepaired capacity. This indicates the possibility of re-repairing the beams after the CFRP debonding. Overall, the findings of this study can be used in the industry to repair RC beams and girders that have been damaged due to extreme loading conditions or other reasons. By using CFRP externally bonded sheets, the capacity of the structures can be restored regardless of the pre-repair damage level and the flexural steel design criteria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies to Promote Sustainability and Mitigate Climate Change through Asset Lifecycle)
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20 pages, 6895 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Utilization of Machine-Vision-Technique-Based Algorithm in Objective Evaluation of Confocal Microscope Images
by Aws Anaz, Neamah Kadhim, Omar Sadoon, Ghazwan Alwan and Mustafa Adhab
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3726; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043726 - 17 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1401
Abstract
Confocal microscope imaging has become popular in biotechnology labs. Confocal imaging technology utilizes fluorescence optics, where laser light is focused onto a specific spot at a defined depth in the sample. A considerable number of images are produced regularly during the process of [...] Read more.
Confocal microscope imaging has become popular in biotechnology labs. Confocal imaging technology utilizes fluorescence optics, where laser light is focused onto a specific spot at a defined depth in the sample. A considerable number of images are produced regularly during the process of research. These images require methods of unbiased quantification to have meaningful analyses. Increasing efforts to tie reimbursement to outcomes will likely increase the need for objective data in analyzing confocal microscope images in the coming years. Utilizing visual quantification methods to quantify confocal images with naked human eyes is an essential but often underreported outcome measure due to the time required for manual counting and estimation. The current method (visual quantification methods) of image quantification is time-consuming and cumbersome, and manual measurement is imprecise because of the natural differences among human eyes’ abilities. Subsequently, objective outcome evaluation can obviate the drawbacks of the current methods and facilitate recording for documenting function and research purposes. To achieve a fast and valuable objective estimation of fluorescence in each image, an algorithm was designed based on machine vision techniques to extract the targeted objects in images that resulted from confocal images and then estimate the covered area to produce a percentage value similar to the outcome of the current method and is predicted to contribute to sustainable biotechnology image analyses by reducing time and labor consumption. The results show strong evidence that t-designed objective algorithm evaluations can replace the current method of manual and visual quantification methods to the extent that the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) is 0.9. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies to Promote Sustainability and Mitigate Climate Change through Asset Lifecycle)
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