Mechanisms of Failure and Deterioration of Structural Materials

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will address advances in structural failure for construction elements, namely the main causes of this phenomenon and the conditions under which they occur. The main types of structural failure are essentially caused by deficiencies in the structure’s design, as well as the existence of construction and/or material defects in parallel to operating conditions’ specificities.

The characterization of such diverse factors and how they can contribute to and cooperate in the deterioration of the operating conditions leading to failure is a very important topic, as it may lead to design and manufacturing improvements and strategies to overcome the significant negative impacts that structures’ failure may cause.

Without the prejudice of covering other related research topics, this Special Issue aims to comprehend the following areas:

• Studies of the influence of different defects on structures subjected to different types of loads and how they can be overcome to minimize damage and extend the lives of structural components;
• Studies of the use of advanced materials and design solutions that are mostly in line with the minimization of deterioration and failure;
• Studies of deterioration monitoring and how this important actuation vector can contribute to the good performance and safety of structural materials;
• Reviews dealing with mechanisms of the failure and deterioration of structural materials for different structural applications, which include the different aspects associated with these mechanisms.

Therefore, it is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for publication in this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Joaquim Infante Barbosa
Dr. Maria Amélia Ramos Loja
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. 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.

• failure mechanisms
• damage
• structural condition monitoring
• failure and damage modelling
• materials and structures’ design strategies