High-Performance and Functional Pavement and Trackbed Materials for Sustainable Built Environments

Dear Colleagues,

High-performance and functional pavement and trackbed materials are recognized as integral components of the built environment, playing a critical role in the sustainability, resilience, and intelligent operation of modern cities and infrastructure systems. Beyond their conventional structural functions, next-generation pavements are being engineered as multifunctional building materials capable of self-healing, thermal regulation, deicing and snow-melting, noise and vibration mitigation, and in situ sensing of loading and environmental conditions.

Recent advances in thermally functional and energy-harvesting pavements, semi-flexible and grouted systems, as well as epoxy- and resin-modified materials, have significantly enhanced durability, service life, and climate adaptability, while contributing to low-carbon and resource-efficient built environments. These materials enable new opportunities to integrate pavement and trackbed systems into broader frameworks of building and urban infrastructure performance.

This Special Issue, “High-Performance and Functional Pavement and Trackbed Materials for Sustainable Built Environments”, aims to collect high-quality research on the design, characterization, modeling, and implementation of advanced pavement and trackbed materials that combine superior mechanical performance with multifunctionality, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience. Contributions addressing material behavior, system-level performance, life-cycle assessment, and practical applications within the built environment are particularly encouraged.

Key topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Self-healing asphalt and rejuvenator-based pavement materials;
• Electrically or thermally functional pavements for heating, deicing, and snow-melting;
• Thermal regulation and energy-harvesting technologies in pavement and trackbed systems;
• Semi-flexible and grouted pavement materials as composite building materials;
• Epoxy- and resin-modified pavements and trackbeds;
• Self-sensing, piezoresistive, and multifunctional pavement materials;
• Climate-resilient and durable pavement design within the built environment;
• Life-cycle performance, sustainability, and carbon assessment of functional pavements.

Dr. Xing Cai
Dr. Song Liu
Dr. Chenguang Shi
Dr. Minghui Gong
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-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.