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Composites, Meta and Nano Materials Modelling and Structural Application

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 629

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Aversa, Italy
Interests: mechanics; structural analysis; structural engineering; structural dynamics; mechanics of materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Aversa, Italy
Interests: structural analysis; finite element analysis; finite element modeling; dynamic analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Engineered materials and their applications have defined the modern frontier of structural engineering. The design and evaluation of constitutive laws, starting from the constituent structure at the element scale, is a crucial aspect that structural engineers must consider and incorporate into their designs. The internal constituent aggregate defines the element scale, varying from the nanoscale of nanomaterials and nanofluids, which are composed of atomic aggregates such as graphene and similar nanostructured elements, to masonry, fractured rocks, and similar materials, where the element scale has dimensions ranging from decimeters to meters.

The challenge in modeling the structural behavior of such materials is to capture the essential behavior without losing specific aspects, such as non-linearities, from both geometric and constitutive standpoints, while also obtaining a simple model that can be studied using established methods of structural mechanics. One of the most important aspects of defining a robust strategy for describing the behavior of metamaterials is the possibility of designing the element aggregate at the material scale to achieve the desired behavior at the structural scale in terms of stiffness, strength, and, in a general sense, any physical property.

The proposal for the Special Issue we are editing aims to bring together scientists and engineers to summarize the description, modeling, constitutive laws, proposal, validation, and homogenization and optimization techniques, facilitating the description and design of nano meta and composite materials and structures.

Dr. Vincenzo Minutolo
Dr. Renato Zona
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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

  • nanomaterials
  • meta-materials
  • composites
  • homogenization
  • interface model
  • optimization
  • material design
  • engineered materials

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 4061 KB  
Article
Experimental Analysis of the Scattering from Reinforced Concrete Mini-Pillars in the X-Band
by Simone Palladino and Adriana Brancaccio
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(5), 2558; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16052558 - 6 Mar 2026
Viewed by 306
Abstract
This work investigates the feasibility of identifying steel reinforcing bars in concrete using a fully contactless radar system operating in the X-band. High-frequency electromagnetic inspection is particularly challenging due to attenuation and strong reflections at the air–concrete interface. This study combines numerical simulations [...] Read more.
This work investigates the feasibility of identifying steel reinforcing bars in concrete using a fully contactless radar system operating in the X-band. High-frequency electromagnetic inspection is particularly challenging due to attenuation and strong reflections at the air–concrete interface. This study combines numerical simulations and laboratory experiments to assess the sensitivity of microwave scattering measurements to the presence of reinforcement. Ad hoc mini reinforced-concrete pillars, both reinforced and unreinforced, were designed and built as benchmark specimens. Measurements were performed in a bistatic configuration using X-band horn antennas and a vector network analyzer, and were compared with finite-difference time-domain simulations reproducing the experimental setup. The qualitative results, comprising a processing strategy to detect the bars, show a clear agreement between numerical and experimental data and confirm that the scattered field remains sensitive to the presence of reinforcing bars despite unfavorable propagation conditions. Full article
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