Durability and Performance of Sustainable Construction and Building Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Construction and building materials still significantly influence the environment because of the consumption of energy and raw materials, as well as the CO₂ gas emissions when producing cement, which is the primary binder of concrete. The sustainable use of resources to produce more eco-friendly cementitious materials has become a trend, but it is also very challenging for material engineers. With the awareness of global warming and the optimal use of resources, research on alternative binders including new cement types using secondary raw materials (e.g., composite cements, hybrid cements, and limestone calcined clay cement) and the utilization of novel binders using industrial by-products such as geopolymers or alkali-activated materials, are considered the cornerstone of sustainability in construction materials. The durability and performance of such newly developed binders under various exposed environments during service are considered to be of high interest for many applications, including classical civil engineering structures and special components for nuclear applications such as the encapsulation of radioactive waste and engineered barriers for the disposal of radioactive waste. On the one hand, durability and performance depend on exposed conditions, and on the other hand, the depend on the intrinsic properties of the materials including its chemistry, nano-/micro-structure and transport properties, which are still not fully understood for newly developed materials.

This Special Issue aims to reflect the current state-of-the-art and new developments on the relevant topics in the research field of the durability and performance of classical and new binder systems. We expect a wide range of contributions from interdisciplinary, multiscale, and different approaches to addressing various durability aspects, which will provide a comprehensive background for material engineers, researchers, and experts in the field. We welcome all new ideas on various topics from young researchers as well as leading experts in the field, in the form of experimental or modelling articles, review articles, and case studies to demonstrate the advances in construction and building materials. The topics to be considered in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:   

• Durability of cement-based materials (carbonation and leaching)
• Innovative materials and their durability
• Chemical degradation (chloride and sulphate attack, alkali-silica reaction, delayed ettringite formation)
• Interface interaction (e.g., cement/clay)
• Hydration, polymerization, and microstructure
• Transport properties (permeability and diffusion)
• Geopolymers and alkali-activated materials
• Supplementary cementitious materials
• Creep and shrinkage
• Coupled THCM
• Geochemical/reactive transport modelling
• Service life prediction
• Life cycle assessment
• Special concretes (high performance, high strength concrete, self-compacting concrete, and recycled aggregate concrete)
• Nuclear applications of cementitious materials/alkali activated materials (waste immobilization and irradiated concrete)

Dr. Quoc Tri Phung
Dr. Nguyen Van Tuan
Guest Editors

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