Repair and Strengthening of Concrete Structures with Advanced Reinforcements

Dear Colleagues,

The existing building stock is strongly dominated by concrete load bearing structures, for which the in-use performance and sustainability play a crucial role in fostering societal and economic growth. The rebuilding of all deficit structures is not regarded as an appropriate solution (economically, environmentally and scientifically) given the emerging technologies to strengthen concrete structures and to extend their service life in an efficient and cost-effective manner, in terms of both rehabilitation and retrofitting. The former refers to restoring the structures to their original capacity, e.g., resolving concrete deterioration, and the latter refers to fitting the anticipated loading conditions, such as strong earthquakes.

Concrete repair and strengthening represent a large proportion of the total construction output; consequently, there is a great deal of interest in the development of advanced materials, strengthening systems and applications to more effectively extend the service life of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. This Special Issue of Materials will offer a detailed overview of recent research and development achievements in this respect, including:

• Advanced reinforcing materials (e.g., fibre-reinforced polymers; shape memory alloys; engineered cementitious composites);
• Latest technological advancements (e.g., surface-bonded reinforcement; textile-reinforced mortar; near-surface or deep-embedded reinforcement; post-tensioning; mechanical anchorages);
• Versatile application conditions (e.g., accidental loads such as seismic, fire, explosion; resilience against climate change; multi-purpose functionalization such as combined systems for structural repair and energy conservation);
• Maximizing sustainability (e.g., repair and strengthening solutions with minimal environmental impact or based on secondary raw materials; impact of the service life extension on the environmental footprint of the existing structure; sustainable design of interventions).

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Stijn Matthys
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. 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.

• Concrete strengthening
• Structural repair
• Rehabilitation
• Externally applied reinforcement
• Fibre-reinforced polymer
• Shape memory alloys
• Engineered cementitious composites
• Resilience
• Sustainability
• Service life