Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.4
3.1
Journals
Buildings
Special Issues
Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction
share announcement

Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 3254

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gang Yao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: engineering management; building construction and informatization; sustainable construction; intelligent construction; assembly building technology
Dr. Wei Tian

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Interests: intelligent construction and management; construction safety; existing building renovation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yang Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: fair-faced concrete; civil engineering construction; application of building information model; construction industrialization; green construction theory and practice
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Against the macro background of increasingly severe global environmental problems and scarce resources, the construction industry, as a significant source of energy consumption and carbon emissions, is in urgent need of realizing sustainable development. How to properly coordinate the balance between construction demand and ecological environment protection in the process of urbanization has become a core challenge for the construction industry.

In order to promote the green transformation, sustainable development and overall progress of the construction industry, this Special Issue focuses on a number of key directions in the field of building construction and invites researchers to actively publish their latest research results, and jointly explore the new concepts, technologies and methods of the future of building construction. The main topics covered in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Low-carbon construction methods;
  • Green construction materials;
  • Building carbon emissions research;
  • Construction intelligent technology;
  • Building information modeling;
  • Sustainable construction management；
  • Construction safety management and risk control；
  • Infrastructure construction.

Prof. Dr. Gang Yao
Dr. Wei Tian
Dr. Yang Yang
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.

Keywords

  • construction technology
  • sustainability
  • engineering project management
  • construction safety
  • intelligent construction
  • infrastructure construction
  • low carbon

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 (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

26 pages, 7220 KB  
Article
Field Testing and Numerical Investigation of Mechanical Properties in Reinforced Steel–Wood Composite Formwork Systems
by Yang Yang, Tingting Wang, Gang Yao, Mingpu Wang, Rong Wang and Pengcheng Li
Buildings 2026, 16(3), 667; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16030667 - 5 Feb 2026
Viewed by 550
Abstract
Traditional steel–wood composite formwork systems often exhibit mechanical imbalances, such as high strength with insufficient stiffness or high stiffness with low toughness, under both ultimate and serviceability limit states. To address the deficiency, this paper proposes a novel reinforced steel–wood composite formwork system [...] Read more.
Traditional steel–wood composite formwork systems often exhibit mechanical imbalances, such as high strength with insufficient stiffness or high stiffness with low toughness, under both ultimate and serviceability limit states. To address the deficiency, this paper proposes a novel reinforced steel–wood composite formwork system (RSWC-FS). The system features a multi-layer plywood panel, ribbed cold-formed thin-walled Q235 steel secondary wales, and double-channel steel primary wales, interconnected by high-strength bolts to create a surface-to-surface bonded interface. This design enhances load transfer efficiency and mitigates stress concentration. Field testing was conducted on cast-in-place shear walls and frame columns, and corresponding finite element models were established in ANSYS for numerical analysis. The results demonstrate that the RSWC-FS delivers stable mechanical performance. The maximum stress of shear walls reaches 42.57 MPa and that of columns 49.98 MPa, while the corresponding displacements are 4.719 mm and 1.541 mm, all of which remain well within the allowable limits. Through an inverse analysis calibration process, optimal load partial factors of 1.26 for shear walls and 1.31 for columns are recommended, significantly reducing the deviation between calculated and measured values. The proposed RSWC-FS effectively resolves the mechanical imbalance inherent in traditional steel–wood composite formwork systems and demonstrates considerable potential for practical engineering application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 5842 KB  
Article
Temperature Prediction of Mass Concrete During the Construction with a Deeply Optimized Intelligent Model
by Fuwen Zheng, Shiyu Xia, Jin Chen, Dijia Li, Qinfeng Lu, Lijin Hu, Xianshan Liu, Yulin Song and Yuhang Dai
Buildings 2025, 15(23), 4392; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15234392 - 4 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 648
Abstract
In the construction of ultra-high voltage (UHV) transformation substations, mass concrete is highly susceptible to temperature-induced cracking due to thermal gradients arising from the disparity between internal hydration heat and external environmental conditions. Such cracks can severely compromise the structural integrity and load-bearing [...] Read more.
In the construction of ultra-high voltage (UHV) transformation substations, mass concrete is highly susceptible to temperature-induced cracking due to thermal gradients arising from the disparity between internal hydration heat and external environmental conditions. Such cracks can severely compromise the structural integrity and load-bearing capacity of foundations, making accurate temperature prediction and effective thermal control critical challenges in engineering practice. To address these challenges and enable real-time monitoring and dynamic regulation of temperature evolution, this study proposes a novel hybrid forecasting model named CPO-VMD-SSA-Transformer-GRU for predicting temperature behavior in mass concrete. First, sine wave simulations with varying sample sizes were conducted using three models: Transformer-GRU, VMD-Transformer-GRU, and CPO-VMD-SSA-Transformer-GRU. The results demonstrate that the proposed CPO-VMD-SSA-Transformer-GRU model achieves superior predictive accuracy and exhibits faster convergence toward theoretical values. Subsequently, four performance metrics were evaluated: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Coefficient of Determination (R2). The model was then applied to predict temperature variations in mass concrete under laboratory conditions. For the univariate time series at Checkpoint 1, the evaluation metrics were MAE: 0.033736, MSE: 0.0018812, RMSE: 0.036127, and R2: 0.98832; at Checkpoint 2, the values were MAE: 0.016725, MSE: 0.00091304, RMSE: 0.019114, and R2: 0.96773. In addition, the proposed model was used to predict the temperature in the rising stage, indicating high reliability in capturing nonlinear and high-dimensional thermal dynamics in the whole construction process. Furthermore, the model was extended to multivariate time series to enhance its practical applicability in real-world concrete construction. At Checkpoint 1, the corresponding metrics were MAE: 0.56293, MSE: 0.34035, RMSE: 0.58339, and R2: 0.95414; at Checkpoint 2, they were MAE: 0.85052, MSE: 0.78779, RMSE: 0.88757, and R2: 0.91385. These results indicate significantly improved predictive performance compared to the univariate configuration, thereby further validating the accuracy, stability, and robustness of the multivariate CPO-VMD-SSA-Transformer-GRU framework. The model effectively captures complex temperature fluctuation patterns under dynamic environmental and operational conditions, enabling precise, reliable, and adaptive temperature forecasting. This comprehensive analysis establishes a robust methodological foundation for advanced temperature prediction and optimized thermal management strategies in real-world civil engineering applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 16284 KB  
Article
Mechanical Performance of Reinforced Concrete Vierendeel Sandwich Plates with Upsetting Sleeve Assembled Joints Under Cyclic Loading
by Shuliang Qin, Yanhui Wei, Kejian Ma and Jing Chen
Buildings 2025, 15(22), 4046; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15224046 - 10 Nov 2025
Viewed by 627
Abstract
In order to surmount the characteristics of high steel consumption and cost in prefabricated buildings, as a novel structural component, reinforced concrete vierendeel sandwich plates (RC-VSP) could be effectively employed. However, RC-VSP is restricted by complex construction procedures and rigorous quality control demands. [...] Read more.
In order to surmount the characteristics of high steel consumption and cost in prefabricated buildings, as a novel structural component, reinforced concrete vierendeel sandwich plates (RC-VSP) could be effectively employed. However, RC-VSP is restricted by complex construction procedures and rigorous quality control demands. Reliable reinforcement connections are the keys to their prefabrication. This study employed the methods of 1:1 full-scale comparative tests and numerical analysis through finite- element modeling. It compared the mechanical behaviors of the continuous reinforcement control group and the upset sleeve assembly group under four-point cyclic bending conditions. It analyzed how sleeves’ distribution influences structural stress states and crack propagation processes. The results show a superior ductility and damage resistance, on the basis of the components’ attenuation amplitude of the secant stiffness remains around 50% after the loading test with a deflection of 1/100, and the equivalent damping ratio is greater than 13%. Furthermore, the high similarity of the strain responses demonstrated the connection achieves prefabricated structures’ “equivalent performance to cast-in-place ones”. Additionally, the sleeve joints have slightly better stiffness, minor stress concentration at sleeve ends. This study offers robust experimental and theoretical support for the integrated prefabricated application of RC-VSP and further facilitates the development of building structures toward higher efficiency and lower carbon emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 9259 KB  
Article
Research on an Intelligent Prediction Method for the Carbon Emissions of Prefabricated Buildings During the Construction Stage, Based on Modular Quantification
by Yang Yang, Xiaodong Cai, Xinlong Ma, Gang Yao, Ting Lei, Hongbo Tan and Ying Wang
Buildings 2025, 15(12), 1997; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15121997 - 10 Jun 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 875
Abstract
Prefabricated buildings are widely utilized due to their effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions. The construction stage has a significantly higher carbon emission rate than the other stages of their life cycle, but this is difficult to accurately quantify and predict due to the [...] Read more.
Prefabricated buildings are widely utilized due to their effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions. The construction stage has a significantly higher carbon emission rate than the other stages of their life cycle, but this is difficult to accurately quantify and predict due to the high variability. This study clarifies the system boundary of carbon emissions and the parameters of influence in carbon emissions predictions. The carbon emission quantification model was improved by using the process analysis method and the carbon emission factor method, and a modular calculation formula was proposed. Based on the machine learning algorithm, a carbon emissions prediction model for prefabricated buildings’ construction stage was established and hyperparameter optimization was conducted. A sample database for predicting prefabricated buildings’ carbon emissions during the construction stage was established using a modular quantification method, and the thin plate spline interpolation algorithm was introduced to expand this. The prediction results of carbon emission prediction models using four algorithms, SVR, BPNN, ELM, and RF, were compared and analyzed by RMSE and R2. The results show that the model based on BPNN has the highest prediction accuracy when determining the carbon emissions of prefabricated building during the construction stage, and this method can provide a more accurate reference for subsequent quantitative research on carbon emissions from prefabricated buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovation and Technology in Sustainable Construction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop