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Advanced Cementitious Materials Incorporating Solid Waste for Sustainable Construction
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Advanced Cementitious Materials Incorporating Solid Waste for Sustainable Construction

A Special Issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309) belonging to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1843

Editors

Dr. Jian Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1H9, Canada
Interests: sustainable cementitious materials; mine wastes; geothermal; artificial intelligence; mining applications; fiber-reinforced concrete
Dr. Hanzhi Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Construction Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
Interests: cementitious materials; oil well cement; deep mining; machine learning; energy storage; rock mechanics
Dr. Shaosen Ma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Natural Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Interests: cementitious materials; foamed concrete; artificial intelligence mining transportation; mine machinery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of advanced cementitious materials incorporating solid waste is gaining increasing attention as the construction industry seeks low-carbon and sustainable solutions. Industrial by-products and solid wastes—such as mine tailings, slags, and construction and demolition waste—offer significant potential to partially or fully replace conventional cementitious constituents, while reducing environmental impact and promoting circular economy principles.

Despite notable progress, several challenges remain in the effective utilization of solid waste in cement-based materials. These include the variability and low reactivity of waste resources, difficulties in achieving consistent mechanical performance, long-term durability under complex service environments, and the need to balance environmental benefits with structural reliability. In addition, advanced design strategies and performance-oriented material tailoring, are still under active development.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to highlight recent advances and emerging technologies in advanced cementitious materials containing solid wastes, from fundamental mechanisms to engineering applications. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Solid waste utilization and activation techniques;
  • Low-carbon and alternative cementitious systems;
  • Fresh and hardened-state properties;
  • Mechanical performance and durability;
  • Sustainability and life-cycle assessment;
  • Functional and high-performance applications;
  • Data-driven and intelligent material design approaches.

This Special Issue aims to foster interdisciplinary research and accelerate the practical deployment of sustainable cement-based materials for resilient infrastructure.

Dr. Jian Zhao
Dr. Hanzhi Yang
Dr. Shaosen Ma
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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 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 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

  • waste utilization
  • solid waste activation techniques
  • sustainable cementitious materials
  • mine waste
  • mechanical properties
  • durability
  • additives
  • life-cycle assessment
  • machine learning

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 10782 KB  
Article
Durability Performance and Microstructural Evolution of Carbonation-Solidified Red Mud-Based Backfill Under Wetting–Drying Cycles and Alkaline Red Mud Liquor Immersion
by Lizhu Qi, Tanjia Zhang, Dechao Cui, Shiqi Chang, Xiaoqiang Dong and Junlian Yin
Buildings 2026, 16(15), 3121; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16153121 - 6 Aug 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 358
Abstract
Red mud-based backfill containing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) ash and reactive MgO must maintain adequate mechanical integrity and environmental stability under moisture and alkaline exposure. This study investigated the durability of carbonation-solidified red mud-based backfill subjected to wetting–drying cycles and alkaline red mud [...] Read more.
Red mud-based backfill containing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) ash and reactive MgO must maintain adequate mechanical integrity and environmental stability under moisture and alkaline exposure. This study investigated the durability of carbonation-solidified red mud-based backfill subjected to wetting–drying cycles and alkaline red mud liquor (RML) immersion. Specimens carbonated for 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 h were evaluated in terms of macroscopic morphology, mass loss, linear shrinkage, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), electrical resistivity, pH, hazardous-element leaching, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Increasing carbonation duration generally reduced mass loss and linear shrinkage while improving UCS and electrical resistivity within the investigated exposure range. Wetting–drying cycling resulted in progressive surface erosion, shrinkage, and strength deterioration. By contrast, RML immersion produced an initial increase in UCS and resistivity, followed by stabilization or a slight decline at later ages. The observed changes were consistent with pore filling by carbonate-bearing products and low-crystallinity reaction products, followed by local pore development and disruption of the cemented structure during prolonged exposure. At a UCS threshold of 0.8 MPa, the response-surface models yielded estimated threshold exposures of 6.92–13.98 cycles under wetting–drying conditions and 45.69–75.05 d under RML immersion, with the RML estimates extrapolated from the 28 d dataset. Within the tested conditions, carbonation improved the resistance of the backfill material to cyclic moisture disturbance and alkaline immersion, with the 8–10 h groups retaining relatively higher mechanical and dimensional performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Cementitious Materials Incorporating Solid Waste for Sustainable Construction)
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14 pages, 2970 KB  
Article
Effect of Chemical Composition of Granulated Blast Furnace Slag on Its Cementitious Properties
by Haiyan Chen, Zhihua Ou, Hai Lin, Jingjing Wu and Min He
Buildings 2026, 16(11), 2073; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16112073 - 23 May 2026
Viewed by 523
Abstract
Granulated blast furnace slag is a commonly used supplementary cementitious material in cement-based materials. The raw materials for ironmaking and the cooling process affect its composition, thereby influencing its reactivity. Three types of slag were selected and incorporated at replacement ratios of 15%, [...] Read more.
Granulated blast furnace slag is a commonly used supplementary cementitious material in cement-based materials. The raw materials for ironmaking and the cooling process affect its composition, thereby influencing its reactivity. Three types of slag were selected and incorporated at replacement ratios of 15%, 30%, and 50% to investigate the influence of chemical composition on the activity index of slag at different ages and the mechanisms. The results indicate that in the early hydration stage, slag primarily plays a mechanical filling and dilution role (inert volumetric occupation without significant heterogeneous nucleation), while the pozzolanic effect dominates at later stages. Al2O3 in the slag is activated at early ages to form ettringite; at replacement ratios of 30%, C-A-S-H gel is also formed at later ages; when the replacement ratio reaches 50%, the significant reduction in cement clinker content leads to dropping in system alkalinity—corresponding to a 50% reduction in cement-derived Ca(OH)2, the activation of Al2O3 in the slag is not significant at early ages. The effects of glass content, alkali content, specific surface area, CaO + MgO content, quality coefficient, and basicity coefficient on the reactivity become prominent at longer ages. No additional crystalline phases beyond those present in pure cement paste were detected in the cement paste after slag incorporation. This study provides a theoretical basis and data support for the high-value utilization of industrial solid waste in green building materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Cementitious Materials Incorporating Solid Waste for Sustainable Construction)
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23 pages, 4728 KB  
Article
Hydration Behavior and Environmental–Economic Performance of Portland Cement Incorporating Particle Board Waste Sludge
by Şükrü Özkan
Buildings 2026, 16(8), 1496; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16081496 - 10 Apr 2026
Viewed by 628
Abstract
This study presents a source-specific experimental evaluation of particle board waste sludge (PBWS), a sludge-type industrial by-product from the wood-based panel industry, as a partial cement replacement in Portland cement paste systems. The hydration-related behavior of cement pastes containing 0%, 5%, 10%, and [...] Read more.
This study presents a source-specific experimental evaluation of particle board waste sludge (PBWS), a sludge-type industrial by-product from the wood-based panel industry, as a partial cement replacement in Portland cement paste systems. The hydration-related behavior of cement pastes containing 0%, 5%, 10%, and 20% PBWS at 7, 28, and 90 days was investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Thermogravimetry/Derivative Thermogravimetry (TG/DTG). The results showed that PBWS affected phase development and thermal decomposition behavior depending on replacement level and curing age. In the TG/DTG analysis, mass losses in the 30–230 °C region were generally higher in the PBWS-containing mixtures than in the reference paste, particularly at 28 and 90 days, suggesting differences in dehydration-related phase development. FT-IR and XRD results further showed that PBWS modified the evolution of hydration-related phases in the blended systems. From an environmental perspective, increasing PBWS replacement reduced the calculated energy intensity, CO2 emissions, and production cost; at 20% replacement, these values decreased from 3300 to 2654 MJ/t, from 830 to 706.77 kg/t, and from 3400 to 2867.16 TL/t, respectively. Overall, the results indicate that PBWS has the potential to improve the environmental profile of cement-based production while influencing hydration-related phase evolution in blended paste systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Cementitious Materials Incorporating Solid Waste for Sustainable Construction)
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