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Sustainable Resource Utilization: Energy-Based Approaches in Recycling Materials
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Sustainable Resource Utilization: Energy-Based Approaches in Recycling Materials

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 6054

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yujie Qi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Transport Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: soil dynamics; granular matrix; mathematic modelling; large-scale dynamic loading tests; using waste and marginal materials in transport infrastructure
Dr. Trung Ngo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Transport Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Interests: railway technology; track dynamic analysis; use of Geosynthetics for transport projects; computational modelling in geotechnics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Large stockpiling of waste materials due to industrialization and mining excavation has generated severe environmental and social concerns worldwide. Researchers endeavour to explore innovative solutions to recycle them. The application of waste materials in large-scale civil/geotechnical engineering is one of the most efficient methods of reducing the large stockpiles on useful land, as well as improving the stability and longevity of infrastructure foundations. Apart from proving the geotechnical functions as traditional materials, the inclusion of resilient waste such as recycled rubber, plastics, fibres can also serve as an energy absorption reservoir or vibration barrier to minimise damage to the geotechnical infrastructures (e.g., railways, roads, airport runways, seismic isolation bass) caused by heavier, dynamic and/or impact load. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt innovative analysis methods such as the energy-based approach to investigate these novel geotechnical inclusions, which is currently quite limited in the literature review.

This Special Issue aims to attract researchers and practitioners to promote their studies and/or experiences on the application of recycled/marginal materials in civil/geotechnical engineering. Particularly, those studies, reviews, technical reports on the resilient recycled/marginal materials (e.g., recycled rubber, plastics, glass, demolished construction materials, mining waste) used in dynamic transportation engineering are welcomed. Moreover, we strongly encourage studies using new concepts and methodologies to look into these materials apart from the methods investigating traditional materials.

The scope of this Special Issue includes but is not limited to the following topics:

  • Use of waste and marginal materials in civil/geotechnical engineering
  • Energy-based approach on resilient materials
  • Sustainable solutions in transportation infrastructure
  • Mathematical modelling on waste materials
  • Numerical analysis to capture the geotechnical characteristics of waste materials
  • Comprehensive laboratory testing and field trial on the waste material applications
  • Engineering Solutions to reduce the carbon footprint with the use of marginal materials
  • Used of recycled rubber mats for improved performance of roads / railway tracks.

Dr. Yujie Qi
Dr. Trung Ngo
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. 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 2400 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

  • recycled materials
  • resilient geo-inclusions
  • energy absorption
  • mathematic modeling
  • civil/geotechnical infrastructure

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6642 KiB  
Article
Effects of Particle Size and Grading on the Breakage of Railway Ballast: Laboratory Testing and Numerical Modeling
by Jing Chen, Yangzepeng Liu, Qihang Hu and Rui Gao
Sustainability 2023, 15(23), 16363; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316363 - 28 Nov 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1783
Abstract
Ballast is coarse aggregate with particle size normally ranging from 10 mm to 65 mm. Upon repeated train loading, ballast deteriorates in the form of either continuous abrasion of sharp corners or size degradation, which have been reported as the fundamental cause for [...] Read more.
Ballast is coarse aggregate with particle size normally ranging from 10 mm to 65 mm. Upon repeated train loading, ballast deteriorates in the form of either continuous abrasion of sharp corners or size degradation, which have been reported as the fundamental cause for the instability of railway tracks. In this study, the splitting behavior of ballast grain with varying particle sizes under diametrical compression was examined to investigate the size effect and the Weibull characteristics of ballast tensile strength; a Weibull modulus of 2.35 was measured for the tested granite ballast. A series of large-scale monotonic triaxial tests on ballast aggregates having various size gradings was performed to study the effect of particle gradation on the mechanical behavior of ballast. The results show that compared to mono-sized uniformly distributed aggregates, non-uniformly distributed aggregates generally have greater shear strength, larger peak friction angle, 50% strength modulus, and greater volumetric dilation. The ballast aggregate conforming to the recommended PSD as per current standards exhibited the most superior mechanical performance, possessing the greatest shear strength, peak friction angle, and 50% strength modulus. Micromechanical analysis showed that aggregates with larger d50 values have higher coordination numbers, inter-particle contact forces, and higher anisotropy level of contact normals, thus causing a greater possibility of particle breakage during shearing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Resource Utilization: Energy-Based Approaches in Recycling Materials)
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23 pages, 3454 KiB  
Article
Assessing and Predicting Geogrid Reduction Factors after Damage Induced by Dropping Recycled Aggregates
by Mateus P. Fleury, Gustavo K. Kamakura, Cira S. Pitombo, André Luiz B. N. Cunha, Fernanda B. Ferreira and Jefferson Lins da Silva
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 9942; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139942 - 22 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1776
Abstract
To fulfill the modern concept of sustainable construction, the civil engineering community has shown increased interest in alternative options to replace natural backfills for engineering purposes. Since Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste (RCDW) has proven to be attractive in environmental, economic, and technical [...] Read more.
To fulfill the modern concept of sustainable construction, the civil engineering community has shown increased interest in alternative options to replace natural backfills for engineering purposes. Since Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste (RCDW) has proven to be attractive in environmental, economic, and technical aspects, its behavior should be assessed considering its interaction with other construction materials, such as geosynthetics. Bearing in mind that the backfill affects the durability of geosynthetic materials, this study aims to assess the damage caused to geogrids by RCDW dropped by transportation (dump) trucks. Moreover, this study aimed to obtain an equation to predict the reduction factor caused by the backfill drop process. In an experimental facility, six RCDW materials (with different grain size distributions) were dropped (using a backhoe loader) from 1.0 m and 2.0 m heights over three distinct geogrids; the geogrid samples were exhumed and then tested under tensile loading. The results provided a database subjected to machine learning (Artificial Neural Network—ANN) to predict the reduction factor caused by the induced damage. The results demonstrate that the increase in drop height or potential energy cannot be directly associated with the damage. However, the damage increases as the maximum grain size of uniform gradation backfill increases, which is different from the results obtained from the fall of continuous gradation backfill. Moreover, since ANNs do not have any of the traditional constraints that multiple linear regression has, this method is an attractive solution to predict the geosynthetic reduction factors, providing relative errors lower than 8% compared to the experimental investigation reported in the study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Resource Utilization: Energy-Based Approaches in Recycling Materials)
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19 pages, 7317 KiB  
Article
Strength Characteristics and Micro-Mechanism of Silty Soil Modified by Red Mud Co-Cement
by Xinming Li, Pan Yan, Song Yin, Xianwei Zhang, Pengfei Liu and Yulong Wang
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8762; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118762 - 29 May 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1521
Abstract
Red mud (RM) is a kind of solid waste produced during the bauxite refining process, which can cause significant environmental pollution when stored in large quantities. To address this issue and to improve the reuse rate of RM, this study investigates the feasibility [...] Read more.
Red mud (RM) is a kind of solid waste produced during the bauxite refining process, which can cause significant environmental pollution when stored in large quantities. To address this issue and to improve the reuse rate of RM, this study investigates the feasibility of using RM as a roadbed filling material, specifically in combination with cement, using modified silty sand (P.O-RMS). Therefore, mechanical and microscopic tests are conducted with different RM contents (WRM), cement contents (WP.O), and curing ages to analyze the P.O-RMS′ strength, deformation characteristics, and microstructure formation mechanism. Additionally, the radioactivity and heavy metal concentrations of P.O-RMS are also detected. Mechanical test results showed that the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of P.O-RMS does not increase monotonically with the increase of WRM, and the peak strength appears at WRM = 20%. Although adding RM has a negative impact on the toughness of P.O-RMS at the initial curing ages of 7 days and 28 days, they still meet the requirements of the Chinese standard for high-grade highway base strength. Scanning electron microscope testing shows that the gel products produced by cement hydration increase with the amount of RM, and reach their maximum at WRM = 20%. Therefore, WRM = 20% is recommended as the optimum admixture of P.O-RMS. The usage of RM as a filling material for roadbed construction in this study not only aligns with the principles of sustainable development, but also provides a crucial theoretical foundation for the effective utilization of RM resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Resource Utilization: Energy-Based Approaches in Recycling Materials)
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