Special Issue "Durability and Performance of Sustainable Construction and Building Materials"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Quoc Tri Phung
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Expert Group Waste and Disposal, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), 2400 Mol, Belgium
Interests: durability of concrete; hydration; microstructure; transport properties; geopolymers; waste immobilization; creep and shrinkage; carbonation; leaching; alkali silica reaction; delayed ettringite formation
Dr. Nguyen Van Tuan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Building Materials, National University of Civil Engineering, 100000 Hanoi, Vietnam
Interests: recycling agricultural/industrial by-products in producing concrete; resource efficiency building materials; recycling construction and demolition waste; research and development of (Ultra) high performance concrete; hydration and microstructure development of cement blended with by-products

Special Issue Information

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

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 papers will be 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. Sustainability 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 1900 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

  • durability of concrete (carbonation and leaching)
  • chemical degradation (chloride and sulphate attack, alkali-silica reaction, and delayed ettringite formation)
  • hydration
  • microstructure
  • transport properties (permeability and diffusion)
  • geopolymers and alkali-activated materials
  • supplementary cementitious materials
  • life cycle assessment
  • waste immobilization
  • creep and shrinkage
  • coupled THCM
  • geochemical/reactive transport modelling
  • high performance, high strength concrete, self-compacting concrete, and recycled aggregate concrete
  • Irradiation of concrete
  • sevice life prediction

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Climatic Issue in an Advanced Numerical Modeling of Concrete Carbonation
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5994; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115994 - 26 May 2021
Viewed by 395
Abstract
Damage in reinforced concrete structures is frequently caused by reinforcement corrosion due to carbonation. Although a wide range of literature contributed to the concrete carbonation consisting of experimental investigations and numerical simulations, research work on a complete numerical model for concrete carbonation prediction [...] Read more.
Damage in reinforced concrete structures is frequently caused by reinforcement corrosion due to carbonation. Although a wide range of literature contributed to the concrete carbonation consisting of experimental investigations and numerical simulations, research work on a complete numerical model for concrete carbonation prediction with integrated climatic variables (e.g., temperature, relative humidity) is still a challenge. The present paper aims to propose an advanced numerical model to simulate the penetration of carbon dioxide and moisture, diffusion of calcium ions, heat transfer, and porosity modification in concrete material using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Three coupled mass conservation equations of calcium, water, and carbon dioxide are solved together with additional equations regarding the heat transfer, variation of porosity, and content of portlandite and other hydrates and calcites. In this study, the actual temporal variabilities of temperature and relative humidity in Toulouse, France, are used as a case study. The predicted results of portlandite profiles and carbonation depth are compared with the experimental data and discussed to identify the effect of climatic variables on the concrete carbonation. Full article
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