Timber Engineering in Infrastructure Construction: Advancements, Challenges, and Opportunities
A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 16
Special Issue Editor
Interests: timber engineering; capacity models; earthquake engineering; structural design; structural health monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Timber is re-emerging as a strategic material for infrastructure, driven by decarbonization goals, accelerated and off-site construction, and advances in engineered wood systems. Mass timber products (e.g., CLT, GLT, LVL) and hardwood solutions now offer high strength-to-weight ratios, excellent fatigue performance, and verified sustainability credentials. Despite these advantages, wider adoption in bridges, transit hubs, coastal and mountain works, and other civil assets still faces challenges related to durability, fire safety, multi-hazard resilience, connections, long-term behavior, inspection, and codification.
This Special Issue seeks contributions that advance the design, assessment, and delivery of timber infrastructure. We welcome studies on performance-based and reliability-based design; capacity models for members and connections; seismic, wind, and impact response; progressive collapse and structural robustness; serviceability under creep, moisture, fatigue, and vibration; durability, protection, and fire performance.
Submissions on novel products—including short-supply chain hardwoods, bio-based composites, hybrid timber–concrete/steel systems, and modular/prefabricated construction—are highly encouraged. We also invite work on inspection, non-destructive testing, and structural health monitoring, spanning sensing technologies, AI/ML, and digital twins, together with life-cycle assessment, carbon accounting, and cost–benefit analyses. Case studies, full-scale demonstrations, and contributions informing standards (e.g., Eurocode 5 evolution) are particularly welcome.
Dr. Angelo Aloisio
Guest Editor
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. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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
- mass timber (CLT, GLT, LVL)
- reliability-based design and capacity models
- seismic and multi-hazard resilience
- structural health monitoring, NDT and digital twins
- hybrid timber–concrete/steel systems
- life-cycle assessment
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