Future Civil Engineering: Low-Carbon, High Performance and Strong Durability—2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 525

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China
Interests: concrete durability; ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC); composite structure; strengthening
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Water Conservancy and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Interests: mechanical behaviors of coarse grains and the reinforcement and improvement technology of special soils
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Materials, VITO, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
Interests: (low-carbon) ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced cement-based materials (UHPFRC) and their mechanical properties; tensile and fatigue properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Structural Concrete, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
Interests: material and constitutive modeling of cementitious composites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Amid global environmental changes and the green transition, the civil engineering sector—a high-resource, high-impact industry—is urgently shifting toward low-carbon development. The expansion of infrastructure into remote and harsh environments (e.g., high temperatures, acid–alkali exposure, freeze–thaw cycles) intensifies challenges of structural stability and durability, demanding breakthroughs in materials, design, and sustainability. Future advancements must prioritize carbon neutrality, enhanced performance, and resilient engineering systems.

Global research priorities now emphasize green construction, renewable energy integration, climate adaptation, disaster resilience, and high-performance materials. Concurrently, innovation in infrastructure renewal, intelligent transport systems, and sustainable structural solutions reflect the growing role of smart technologies.

This Special Issue seeks to disseminate cutting-edge research and applications in the following key areas:

  • Eco-friendly and low-carbon building materials;
  • Advanced engineering protection and reinforcement materials;
  • High-performance composite materials and structures;
  • Structural safety, durability assessment, and lifecycle prediction;
  • Durable steel solutions and lightweight construction technologies;
  • Structural resilience in extreme environmental conditions;
  • Circular economy approaches: Recycling and solid waste valorization;
  • Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies;
  • Intelligent systems and digital innovations in civil engineering;
  • Renewable energy integration and sustainable infrastructure;
  • Energy-efficient design strategies and low-energy infrastructure solutions;
  • Low-carbon and smart concrete technologies.

We invite original contributions that explore interdisciplinary perspectives, novel methodologies, and scalable solutions to advance the sustainability, resilience, and innovation capacity of civil engineering. Papers should address not only technical advancements, but also holistic strategies for harmonizing environmental stewardship with economic feasibility.

Dr. Zhongya Zhang
Dr. Minqiang Meng
Dr. Xiujiang Shen
Dr. Abedulgader Baktheer
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. 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

  • green building materials
  • high-performance composites and structures
  • ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC)
  • structural durability and strengthening
  • sustainable civil engineering
  • lifecycle evaluation and prediction
  • engineering construction and service
  • intelligent construction and clean energy
  • low carbon and recycling

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

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

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

28 pages, 9170 KiB  
Article
Electrical Characteristics and Desaturation Effectiveness During Horizontal Electrolysis in Calcareous Sand
by Yumin Chen, Ying Zhou, Runze Chen, Saeed Sarajpoor and Xiao Xie
Buildings 2025, 15(12), 2061; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15122061 - 15 Jun 2025
Viewed by 328
Abstract
Electrolysis desaturation has emerged as an innovative technique to mitigate liquefaction risk by reducing soil saturation in liquefiable foundations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of horizontal electrolysis on calcareous sandy foundations in marine environments by employing 35‰ NaCl solution as pore fluid under [...] Read more.
Electrolysis desaturation has emerged as an innovative technique to mitigate liquefaction risk by reducing soil saturation in liquefiable foundations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of horizontal electrolysis on calcareous sandy foundations in marine environments by employing 35‰ NaCl solution as pore fluid under different current intensities (1A, 2A, and 4A). Experimental results demonstrated that hydrogen gas was generated at the cathode, while chlorine gas was produced at the anode, with peak gas retention rates of 100%, 90.83%, and 63.26% for 1A; 97.61%, 79.04%, and 60.94% for 2A; and 95.37%, 48.49%, and 42.81% for 4A over three electrolysis cycles. Three key findings emerged from our investigation: First, the resistivity of calcareous sand displayed a three-stage variation pattern, primarily governed by temperature and gas content evolution. Second, the temperature-corrected resistivity model provided reliable saturation data, revealing that electrode-adjacent soil layers exhibited significantly greater saturation reduction compared to intermediate layers. The average saturation variation during a single electrolysis cycle reached 3.2%, 2.6%, and 4.4% for 1A, 2A, and 4A, respectively, in the soil layers near the electrodes, compared to 2.1%, 1.7%, and 3.3% in the middle soil layers under the same current intensities. Third, upon stopping electrolysis, gas redistribution led to decreased saturation in upper soil layers, with lower current intensities more effective in retaining gases within the soil matrix. Based on these findings, an electrolytic influence coefficient for calcareous sand applicable to Archie’s formulation is proposed. This study enhances the understanding of the mechanism of electrolysis desaturation and provides a theoretical basis for the effectiveness of electrolysis desaturation on calcareous sand foundations. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop