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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2019) | Viewed by 15991

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Xiaoyong Wang

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Guest Editor

Department of Architectural Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si 24341, Republic of Korea
Interests: cement and concrete; composite structures; numerical modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The building materials industry faces a variety of challenges, such as climate change, deterioration in material durability, and reduced performance of existing structures. Sustainable development is an essential theme in the building materials industry. The government, academia, and the business community are making continuous efforts to meet the challenges and achieve the goal of sustainable development.

The primary purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a platform for the sustainable development of building materials and to provide realistic and feasible solutions for the sustainable development of building materials. The main interests of this Special Issue include the design of sustainable building materials, the performance evaluation of sustainable building materials, and the application of sustainable building materials in civil engineering structures. This Special Issue welcomes original papers and review papers. Thank you for your contributions.

Dr. Xiao Yong Wang
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.

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Keywords

Supplementary cementitious materials
Low CO₂ concrete and optimization design method
Durability of building materials and service life evaluation
Performance evaluation of building materials and structures
Climate change and hazard mitigation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2604 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Life Cycle Analysis of Strengthening Existing RC Structures with R-PE-UHPFRC

by Amir Hajiesmaeili, Francesco Pittau, Emmanuel Denarié and Guillaume Habert

Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 6923; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11246923 - 5 Dec 2019

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3737

Abstract

(PE)-UHPFRC, a novel strain hardening ultra high-performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with low clinker content, using Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE) fibers, was developed for structural applications of rehabilitation. A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out to study the environmental impact of interventions on an existing bridge using PE-UHPFRC compared with conventional UHPFRC and post-tensioned reinforced concrete methods in three categories of global warming potential (GWP), cumulative energy demand (CED), and ecological scarcity (UBP). The results showed 55% and 29% decreases in the environmental impact of the PE-UHPFRC compared with reinforced concrete and conventional UHPFRC methods, respectively, which highlighted the effectiveness of this material for the rehabilitation/strengthening of structures from the viewpoint of environmental impact. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Materials Research)

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17 pages, 1930 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Carbon Pricing on Optimal Mix Design of Sustainable High-Strength Concrete

by Xiao-Yong Wang

Sustainability 2019, 11(20), 5827; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205827 - 21 Oct 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2193

Abstract

Material cost and CO₂ emissions are among the vital issues related to the sustainability of high-strength concrete. This research proposes a calculation procedure for the mix design of silica fume-blended high-strength concrete with an optimal total cost considering various carbon pricings. First, the material cost and CO₂ emission cost are determined using concrete mixture and unit prices. Gene expression programming (GEP) is used to evaluate concrete mechanical and workability properties. Second, a genetic algorithm (GA) is used to search the optimal mixture, considering various constraints, such as design compressive strength constraint, design workability constraint, range constraints, ratio constraints, and concrete volume constraint. The optimization objective of the GA is the sum of the material cost and the cost of CO₂ emissions. Third, illustrative examples are shown for designing various kinds of concrete. Five strength levels (from 95 to 115 MPa with steps of 5 MPa) and four carbon pricings (normal carbon pricing, zero carbon pricing, five-fold carbon pricings, and ten-fold carbon pricings) are considered. A total of 20 optimal mixtures are calculated. The optimal mixtures were found the same for the cases of normal CO₂ pricing and zero CO₂ pricing. Optimal mixtures with higher strengths are more sensitive to variation in carbon pricing. For five-fold CO₂ pricing, the cement content of mixtures with higher strengths (105, 110, and 115 MPa) are lower than those of normal CO₂ pricing. As the CO₂ pricing increases from five-fold to ten-fold, for mixtures with a strength of 110 MPa, the cement content becomes lower. Summarily, the proposed method can be applied to the material design of sustainable high-strength concrete with low material cost and CO₂ emissions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Materials Research)

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16 pages, 3405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Strength Development Characteristics of SBR-Modified Cementitious Mixtures for 3-Demensional Concrete Printing

by Kwan Kyu Kim, Jaeheum Yeon, Hee Jun Lee and Kyu-Seok Yeon

Sustainability 2019, 11(15), 4164; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154164 - 1 Aug 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2661

Abstract

The properties of normal cementitious mixtures currently employed to the construction projects cannot be used to the three-dimensional concrete printing technology. This study experimentally investigated the compressive and flexural strength development of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)-modified cementitious mixtures for use as basic three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) materials. The SBR/cement ratio was a variable of the mix proportion used to produce cast and printed specimens. Experiments were conducted using these specimens to determine the compressive and flexural strength levels of the SBR-modified cementitious mixtures. The results indicated that the compressive strengths of the SBR-modified cementitious mixtures proposed in this study were never less than those of existing 3D concrete printing materials previously introduced for 3DCP applications. It was confirmed that the addition of SBR latex effectively improved the strength of the cementitious mixtures because the relative compressive and flexural strengths increased with increases in the SBR/cement ratio. Moreover, the higher early (i.e., 1-day) strength indicates that the SBR-modified cementitious mixtures would be advantageous to the 3DCP process. However, the compressive and flexural strengths of the printed specimens were weaker than those of the cast specimens. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Materials Research)

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14 pages, 1606 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Climate Change on the Optimization of Mixture Design of Low-CO₂ Concrete Containing Fly Ash and Slag

by Xiao-Yong Wang

Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3394; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123394 - 19 Jun 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2754

Abstract

Fly ash and slag have been widely used to produce low-CO₂ concrete. However, previous studies have not paid enough attention to the lower carbonation resistance of fly-ash-and-slag-blended concrete and the aggravations of carbonation due to climate change. This study proposes a technique for the design of fly-ash-and-slag-blended concrete considering carbonation durability coupled with various climate change scenarios. First, CO₂ emissions are evaluated from concrete mixtures. Concrete strength and carbonation depth are evaluated using efficiency factors of fly ash and slag. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find the optimal mixture with the lowest CO₂ emissions considering the requirements of strength, carbonation durability, and workability. Second, we clarify the effect of cost on the mixture design of low-CO₂ concrete. A genetic algorithm is also used to find the optimal mixture with the lowest cost. We found that the optimal mixture with the lowest cost is different from that with the lowest CO₂ emissions. Third, by adding the additional constraint of cost, Pareto optimal mixtures are determined, which consider both lower CO₂ emissions and lower material cost. The analysis results show that carbonation durability is the control factor of mixture design of fly ash-slag blended concrete. To mitigate the challenge of climate change, the binder content of blended concrete should be increased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Materials Research)

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21 pages, 3935 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fire Spread of Thermal Insulation Materials in the Ceiling of Piloti-Type Structure: Comparison of Numerical Simulation and Experimental Fire Tests Using Small- and Real-Scale Models

by Heong-Won Suh, Su-Min Im, Tae-Hoon Park, Hyung-Jun Kim, Hong-Sik Kim, Hyun-Ki Choi, Joo-Hong Chung and Sung-Chul Bae

Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3389; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123389 - 19 Jun 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4178

Abstract

Large-scale fires mainly due to the ignition of thermal insulation materials in the ceiling of piloti-type structures are becoming frequent. However, the fire spread in these cases is not well understood. Herein we performed small-scale and real-scale model tests, and numerical simulations using a fire dynamics simulator (FDS). The experimental and FDS results were compared to elucidate fire spread and effects of thermal insulation materials on it. Comparison of real-scale fire test and FDS results revealed that extruded polystyrene (XPS) thermal insulation material generated additional ignition sources above the ceiling materials upon melting and propagated and sustained the fire. Deformation of these materials during fire test generated gaps, and combustible gases leaked out to cause fire spread. When the ceiling materials collapsed, air flew in through the gaps, leading to flashover that rapidly increased fire intensity and degree of spread. Although the variations of temperatures in real-scale fire test and FDS analysis were approximately similar, melting of XPS and generation of ignition sources could not be reproduced using FDS. Thus, artificial settings that increase the size and intensity of ignition sources at the appropriate moment in FDS were needed to achieve results comparable to those recorded by heat detectors in real-scale fire tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Materials Research)

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