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3.1
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Construction Materials
Special Issues
Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science
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Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science

A special issue of Construction Materials (ISSN 2673-7108).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 August 2025) | Viewed by 5629

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. M. Serkan Kirgiz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Academia of ACMCEN, Beaverton, OR 97075, USA
Interests: construction materials; sustainability; energy; supplementary cementitious materials; by-products; upcycling; recycle; reuse; reduce; strength; fracture mechanics; XRD characterization; SEM/EDS analysis; XRF chemical composition analysis; DTA/TG analysis; FTIR analysis; bitumen; resin; epoxy; continuum mechanics; shear/flexural/compressive strength; plates and shells; advanced engineering analysis
Prof. Dr. Jamal Khatib

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Civil Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK
2. Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut 11 5020, Lebanon
Interests: construction and structural materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation is a broad field in the research of Construction Material Science. At the beginning of the 1960s, design and process-oriented research was the primary interest of scientists and methodologists, including technical and social scientists. However, since then, research has focused little on design and process-oriented methodologies, especially in the evaluation of construction materials. Therefore, this Special Issue focuses on topics such as construction binders, by-products, waste-to-material processing, and the transformation of by-products into construction materials; these topics will be addressed in relation to the manufacturing process, the evaluation of features, CO2 neutrality, the achievement of net zero CO2 emissions and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals; and energy demand.

Regarding the use of by-products as an alternative material in the mitigation of climate change, the vast majority of hazardous industrial by-products/human-based wastes meet the requirements of green-binder-based structural/construction materials in the manufacture of raw materials with low greenhouse gas emissions. The availability of by-products/human-based wastes enables them to provide specific functions in the preparation of products used in roads, bridges, buildings, and other engineering, environmental, constructional, and infrastructural projects. Therefore, varying volumes of these by-products should be mixed with cement, sand, tar, granulates, and clay to create attractive construction materials, such as blended cement, substituted cement, mortar composites, grout composites, bitumen composites, brick composites, geopolymer composites, and lightweight construction composites modified with fibre, carbon nanotubes, and graphite nanoparticles.

This Special Issue, entitled “Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science”, aims to provide an overview of the design, processing and evaluation of materials through a systematic assessment of the input and outcome. All the information gathered in this Special Issue will enhance the design of novel construction materials.

This Special Issue will enable engineers and researchers to develop efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly production processes and materials.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics;

  • Non-Portland cement binders with by-products,
  • Portland cement binders with by-products,
  • Construction binders with fibre,
  • Reviews regarding the transformation of by-products into materials for use in construction,
  • The use of nanotechnology in transforming by-products into materials for use in the construction process,
  • Evaluation methodology for the transformation of by-products into materials for use in construction,
  • Analysis and characterization of the transformation of by-products into materials,
  • The failure mechanism of transforming by-products into materials for end-users

Prof. Dr. M. Serkan Kirgiz
Prof. Dr. Jamal Khatib
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. Construction Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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

  • clinker
  • gypsum
  • construction lime
  • cement
  • supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), pulverized fuel ash, rice husk ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, steel slag, mine tailing, red mud, limestone sludge
  • calcined clay powder
  • marble powder
  • metakaolin
  • carbon nano tube
  • carbon-based nano dot
  • carbon-based quantum dot
  • fiber
  • cellulose
  • design
  • process
  • material
  • energy
  • evaluation
  • by-product in various industry
  • manufacturing of materials
  • nanomaterials
  • usage of fibre in material
  • lightweight materials
  • structural materials
  • natural materials
  • sustainable construction materials
  • reuse
  • recycling
  • upcycling

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 (5 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1288 KB  
Article
Effect of Different Plastics on Mechanical Properties of Concrete
by Madiha Z. J. Ammari, Halil Sezen and Jose Castro
Constr. Mater. 2025, 5(3), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater5030060 - 25 Aug 2025
Viewed by 715
Abstract
In this research work, five different types of post-consumer plastics were mechanically ground into fine aggregate, and each type was used to prepare 2 in. (50 mm) mortar cubes by partial volumetric replacement of the sand. The purpose is to evaluate the effect [...] Read more.
In this research work, five different types of post-consumer plastics were mechanically ground into fine aggregate, and each type was used to prepare 2 in. (50 mm) mortar cubes by partial volumetric replacement of the sand. The purpose is to evaluate the effect of the plastic type and its shape on the density and the compressive strength of concrete. The plastic products used in this study are usually not collected by curbside recycling facilities and are discarded in landfills or incinerated. The different types of plastics investigated were Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS). A total of 180 cubes with 5%, 10%, and 15% replacement were prepared and tested for their densities at the age of 28 days and their compressive strengths at the ages of 7 and 28 days. This work concluded by proposing general equations to predict the reduction in the density and compressive strength of the mortar with the increment in the plastic replacement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science)
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19 pages, 2654 KB  
Article
Utilization of Different Types of Plastics in Concrete Mixtures
by Ramzi Abduallah, Lisa Burris, Jose Castro and Halil Sezen
Constr. Mater. 2025, 5(2), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater5020039 - 6 Jun 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1410
Abstract
Incorporation of plastic waste into concrete mitigates harm to the environment through encapsulation of plastics in concrete. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the effects of using six commonly used plastic materials (i.e., polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), [...] Read more.
Incorporation of plastic waste into concrete mitigates harm to the environment through encapsulation of plastics in concrete. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the effects of using six commonly used plastic materials (i.e., polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS)) in cement paste and mortar mixtures. The heat of hydration investigations revealed that plastic powders did not significantly affect rates or extents of hydration. Among the different types of plastic-aggregate mortars, PET performed the worst, while PS was the best. Fractures in the samples generally occurred due to debonding between the plastic particles and the cement matrix. Plastic particle shape influences the microstructure of the interfacial transition zone and consequently affects the overall strength of the mortar. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science)
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16 pages, 13230 KB  
Article
Dual-Channel CNN-Based Framework for Automated Rebar Detection in GPR Data of Concrete Bridge Decks
by Sepehr Pashoutani, Mohammadsajjad Roudsari and Jinying Zhu
Constr. Mater. 2025, 5(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater5020036 - 29 May 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 962
Abstract
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is widely used for assessing the deterioration of concrete bridge decks. GPR surveys generate large amounts of data in the form of B-scan images, which display rebar traces as hyperbolas. Accurate analysis of the GPR scans relies on the [...] Read more.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is widely used for assessing the deterioration of concrete bridge decks. GPR surveys generate large amounts of data in the form of B-scan images, which display rebar traces as hyperbolas. Accurate analysis of the GPR scans relies on the effective extraction of rebar locations and amplitudes. This paper presents two automated rebar detection algorithms based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) machine learning techniques. Two models are proposed: CNN-1 and CNN-2. CNN-1 was trained on raw GPR images to identify hyperbolas, while CNN-2 model used both raw and migrated GPR images for enhanced analysis. The models were evaluated using GPR data collected from three bridges with different overlay types. Performance was assessed through the visual comparison of the generated bridge amplitude maps against ground-truth data, as well as precision, recall, and F1-score metrics. The results demonstrate that CNN-2 outperforms CNN-1 in terms of accuracy and efficiency for rebar detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science)
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18 pages, 3571 KB  
Article
Segregation Sensitivity of Concrete—Quantification by Concrete Density
by Maureen Denu, Frank Spörel, David Alós Shepherd, Hassan Ahmed, Jouni Punkki and Frank Dehn
Constr. Mater. 2025, 5(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater5020022 - 8 Apr 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 772
Abstract
Concrete segregation can lead to variations in hardened concrete’s properties, such as strength and Young’s modulus, or permeability, resulting in changing volume ratios between aggregates and paste within a concrete element. One approach to mitigate this potential risk is to conduct a performance [...] Read more.
Concrete segregation can lead to variations in hardened concrete’s properties, such as strength and Young’s modulus, or permeability, resulting in changing volume ratios between aggregates and paste within a concrete element. One approach to mitigate this potential risk is to conduct a performance test to assess vibrated concrete’s segregation sensitivity. This paper outlines various methods to evaluate the segregation sensitivity of vibrated concrete, aiming to support adequate concrete casting. The focus is on practical feasibility while maintaining test accuracy. For hydraulic engineering in Germany, test procedures to evaluate segregation sensitivity on fresh and hardened concrete based on aggregate distribution are described in the “BAW-Code of practice MESB”. However, this method is very complex and, therefore, difficult to implement in practice. Another procedure for hardened concrete is based on concrete density. In this paper, both methods are compared to investigate if evaluating fresh concrete using a simple density criterion leads to a comparably significant differentiation of vibrated concrete with different segregation sensitivities. The primary emphasis lies in accurately classifying examined concretes in terms of their segregation sensitivity, evaluating the scatter of results, and assessing the practical applicability of these methods. The investigations demonstrate that a density-based method can yield reliable and comparable results to those obtained through the wash-out test according to “BAW-Code of practice MESB”. Additionally, a simpler and faster procedure is achievable with the density approach. Hence, density evaluation offers a practical alternative to the wash-out test. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science)
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Other

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21 pages, 2849 KB  
Systematic Review
A Decision Framework for Waste Foundry Sand Reuse: Integrating Performance Metrics and Leachate Safety via Meta-Analysis
by Ferdinand Niyonyungu, Aurobindo Ogra and Ntebo Ngcobo
Constr. Mater. 2025, 5(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater5030063 - 8 Sep 2025
Viewed by 644
Abstract
The reuse of Waste Foundry Sand (WFS) in construction remains constrained by fragmented research, unclear regulatory pathways, and inconsistent assessments of environmental safety and material performance. This study introduces a novel decision-making framework that systematically integrates mechanical performance metrics and leachate toxicity data [...] Read more.
The reuse of Waste Foundry Sand (WFS) in construction remains constrained by fragmented research, unclear regulatory pathways, and inconsistent assessments of environmental safety and material performance. This study introduces a novel decision-making framework that systematically integrates mechanical performance metrics and leachate toxicity data to classify WFS into three categories: Approved, Reusable with Treatment, or Rejected. The framework is based on a bibliometric analysis of 822 publications and a meta-analysis of 45 experimental mix designs and 30 peer-reviewed leachate studies. Normalized compressive strength (NSR), water-to-cement (w/c) ratio, and heavy metal leachate concentrations are used as screening criteria. Thresholds are benchmarked against regulatory limits from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the European Union Landfill Directive, and South Africa’s National Waste Standards. Validation using field data from a foundry in Gauteng Province, South Africa, confirms the framework’s practicality and adaptability. Results indicate that over 80 percent of WFS samples comply with environmental thresholds, and mixes with 10-to-30 percent WFS substitution often outperform control specimens in terms of compressive strength. However, leachate exceedances for cobalt and lead in certain chemically bonded sands highlight the need for batch-specific evaluation and potential treatment. The proposed framework supports data-driven, transparent reuse decisions that enhance environmental compliance and promote circular material flows in the built environment. Future work should focus on digital implementation, life-cycle monitoring, and expanding the framework to other industrial byproducts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Process, Energy, and Evaluation in Construction Material Science)
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