Advances in Natural Building and Construction Materials (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2026) | Viewed by 837

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mining, Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: natural stone; mineral aggregates; properties of dimension stones and mineral aggregates; dimension stones processing technologies; reclamation of post-mining areas
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Geology and Pole of CGeo—Geosciences Center, University of Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: natural stone; quarrying; fracturing; aggregate; land planning and mineral resources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Nanotechnology Engineering Department, Abdullah Gul University, 38100 Kayseri, Turkey
Interests: natural stones; aggregate science and technology; mining engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural building and construction materials are the basic materials used in civil engineering. The continuous development of the construction industry determines the continuous demand for mineral raw materials. Aggregates and dimension stones, which are commonly used in construction, should be of the highest quality. Defining this quality is very difficult due to the varying properties of rocks and the ways in which they are used. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of recent developments in the advances in natural materials for building and construction, including the assessment of the quality of dimension stones and mineral aggregates and their applications in different areas of civil engineering. The issue aims to provide selected papers on the analysis of available testing technologies; physical–mechanical properties; quality assessment; and the market and economic, environmental, and social aspects of the production and use of natural building and construction materials.

Potential topics include but are not limited to

  • The use of natural building and construction materials;
  • The geological and petrographic features of natural building and construction materials;
  • The properties of natural building and construction materials;
  • The quality assessment of natural building and construction materials;
  • The deterioration processes of natural building and construction materials;
  • The evaluation of test methods for properties and requirements for natural building and construction materials;
  • The application of modern technologies for the qualitative assessment of natural building and construction materials;
  • A market analysis of natural building and construction materials;
  • The evaluation of production processes of high-quality natural building and construction materials;
  • The economic, environmental, and social aspects of the production and use of natural building and construction materials.

We have already collected many high-quality articles for Volume 1, and we look forward to the second edition of this Special Issue gathering more outstanding papers in this field.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Materials.

Dr. Paweł Strzałkowski
Prof. Dr. Luís M. O. Sousa
Dr. Ekin Köken
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

  • natural building and construction materials
  • dimension stones
  • mineral aggregates
  • reuse of waste as construction material

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

23 pages, 4097 KB  
Article
Real-Time Damage Detection and Electromechanical Response of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Self-Sensing Concrete Under Compressive and Tensile Loading
by Ahmed S. Eisa, Ahmad A. Attia, Jozef Selín and Pavol Purcz
Buildings 2026, 16(7), 1283; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16071283 - 24 Mar 2026
Viewed by 439
Abstract
The integration of real-time monitoring capabilities into concrete materials offers significant potential for improving the safety and durability of building infrastructure. This study investigates the real-time electromechanical behavior of steel fiber-reinforced self-sensing concrete under compressive and splitting tensile loading. Eighteen cubes (150 × [...] Read more.
The integration of real-time monitoring capabilities into concrete materials offers significant potential for improving the safety and durability of building infrastructure. This study investigates the real-time electromechanical behavior of steel fiber-reinforced self-sensing concrete under compressive and splitting tensile loading. Eighteen cubes (150 × 150 × 150 mm) and eighteen cylinders (150 × 300 mm) containing 0.5%, 1.5%, and 3% steel fiber volume fractions were tested. Electrical resistance was continuously recorded at one-second intervals using an Arduino–ESP32-based system, enabling in situ tracking of damage evolution. The conductive steel fiber network functioned as an intrinsic sensing phase, where load-induced microstructural changes altered electrical pathways. Resistance variations consistently preceded visible cracking, with pronounced nonlinear increases observed at 65–80% of peak load, indicating micro-crack initiation. Distinct electromechanical stages were identified, including elastic stability, compaction-induced resistance reduction near yield, and rapid resistance growth during crack propagation. Higher fiber contents improved both mechanical performance and sensing sensitivity through enhanced crack-bridging and conductive network stability. Although curing age influenced baseline resistance, reliable real-time damage detection was achieved across all specimens. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of steel fiber-reinforced concrete as a cost-effective, distributed monitoring material for early damage detection in building structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Natural Building and Construction Materials (2nd Edition))
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