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Construction Materials: Innovations in Recyclable, Low-Carbon, and Durable Solutions
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Construction Materials: Innovations in Recyclable, Low-Carbon, and Durable Solutions

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 779

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Hang Lin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: civil engineering; fracture mechanics; finite element modeling; solid mechanics; mechanics of materials; soil structure interaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Fenghua Nie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: nanomodified asphalt materials; functional materials; solid waste material recycling; fracture and crack propagation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The construction industry faces growing pressure to minimize its environmental impact, driven by increasing urbanization and infrastructure development. Traditional building materials often contribute significantly to carbon emissions, resource depletion, and waste generation. As global construction activity intensifies, the need for sustainable, high-performance alternatives becomes increasingly critical. This Special Issue, “Construction Materials: Innovations in Recyclable, Low-Carbon, and Durable Solutions”, explores the latest advancements in materials science and engineering to address these challenges. This Special Issue focuses on emerging materials including low-carbon concrete, reclaimed asphalt, recycled aggregates and geopolymers, which offer promising alternatives to conventional materials. Furthermore, it examines innovative manufacturing processes, including 3D printing and prefabrication, that can enhance efficiency and reduce waste. The exploration of lifecycle assessments of these materials will provide a comprehensive understanding of their environmental and economic benefits. This Special Issue will also delve into the implementation of circular economy principles in construction, promoting strategies for material reuse, repurposing, and recycling to minimize waste and maximize resource efficiency.

Prof. Dr. Hang Lin
Guest Editor

Dr. Fenghua Nie
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Materials 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 materials
  • recyclable method
  • low-carbon solutions
  • durability
  • innovative manufacturing processes

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

31 pages, 8832 KiB  
Article
Stabilization of Expansive Soils Using Cement–Zeolite Mixtures: Experimental Study and Lasso Modeling
by Ibrahim Haruna Umar, Sale Abubakar, Abdullahi Balarabe Bello, Hang Lin, Jubril Izge Hassan and Rihong Cao
Materials 2025, 18(10), 2286; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18102286 - 14 May 2025
Viewed by 470
Abstract
The stabilization of expansive soils is crucial for the construction projects to mitigate swelling, shrinkage, and bearing capacity issues. This study investigates the synergistic effects of cement and clinoptilolite zeolite on stabilizing high-plasticity clay (CH) soil from Kano State, Nigeria. A total of [...] Read more.
The stabilization of expansive soils is crucial for the construction projects to mitigate swelling, shrinkage, and bearing capacity issues. This study investigates the synergistic effects of cement and clinoptilolite zeolite on stabilizing high-plasticity clay (CH) soil from Kano State, Nigeria. A total of 30 admixture combinations—cement (0–8%) and zeolite (0–15%)—were tested via standardized laboratory methods to evaluate their free swell index (FSI), swell percentage, swell pressure, shrinkage, and California Bearing Ratio (CBR). Principal component (Lasso) “least absolute shrinkage and selection operator” regression modeled interactions between admixtures and soil properties. The key results include the following: (1) 6% cement + 12% zeolite reduced the FSI by 60% (45 → 18); (2) 8% cement + 15% zeolite decreased the swell percentage by 47.8% (22.5% → 11.75%); (3) 6% cement + 12% zeolite lowered swell pressure by 54.2% (240 kPa → 110 kPa); (4) 8% cement + 12% zeolite reduced shrinkage by 50% (5.6% → 2.8%); and (5) 6% cement + 9% zeolite achieved an unsoaked CBR of 80.01% and soaked CBR of 72.79% (resilience ratio: 0.8010). PCLR models explained 93.5% (unsoaked) and 75.0% (soaked) of the CBR variance, highlighting how zeolite’s mediation analysis indicates that zeolite improves the bearing capacity mainly by reducing the free swell index (path coefficient = −0.91429, p < 0.0001), while conditional process modeling provided greater explanatory power (R2 = 0.745) compared to moderation-only analysis (R2 = 0.618). This study demonstrates that zeolite–cement blends optimize strength and resilience in expansive soils, with implications for sustainable infrastructure in arid and semi-arid regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Materials: Innovations in Recyclable, Low-Carbon, and Durable Solutions)
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