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Sustainable Concrete Design
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Sustainable Concrete Design

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2023) | Viewed by 20844

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ghasan Fahim Huseien

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of the Built Environment, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Interests: sustainable construction materials; waste management; concrete technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the production of sustainable concrete with high strength, durability and fewer environmental problems has become a priority of concrete industries worldwide. The present Special Issue on “Sustainable Concrete Design” aims to publish original research that contributes knowledge to the current understanding of producing eco-friendly high-performance concrete. It pays particular attention to the resource utilization of industrial and agricultural solid wastes in the concrete industry, reduces its impact on the environment, and helps society become more sustainable. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following: low shrinkage concrete, recent applications, sustainable development and circular economy potentials of free cement concrete, fibre concrete, high-resistance concrete to sulphuric acid, freezing–thawing cycles, and elevated temperatures.  Furthermore, other potential studies on engineered cement and concrete, numerical studies, and sensing techniques for damage quantification are welcomed for publication in this Special Issue. We kindly invite you to submit a manuscript(s) for this Special Issue. Original research articles and reviews are also welcome.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ghasan Fahim Huseien
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. 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

  • high-volume fly ash-based sustainable concrete
  • waste ceramic incorporating high-performance concrete
  • effect of agricultural wastes on cement properties
  • effect of factors on mix design of free cement concrete
  • lightweight concrete
  • geopolymer as green building materials
  • management and recycling of waste glass and plastic in concrete products
  • self-healing concrete
  • nanosilica-based high-strength concrete
  • low drying shrinkage concrete

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3157 KiB  
Article
Durability Performance of Hybrid Binder Concretes Containing Non-Ferrous Slag and Recycled Aggregates
by Pithchai P. Sivakumar, Yury A. Villagrán-Zaccardi, Thomas Lapauw, Elke Gruyaert, Stijn Matthys and Nele De Belie
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6338; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086338 - 7 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1762
Abstract
Novel hybrid binder concrete mixes with alkali-activated non-ferrous slag (NFS), either alone or in combination with blast furnace slag (BFS), as partial replacement of Portland cement, and containing 50% recycled aggregates, were successfully manufactured. The compressive strength, carbonation resistance, chloride resistance, frost scaling, [...] Read more.
Novel hybrid binder concrete mixes with alkali-activated non-ferrous slag (NFS), either alone or in combination with blast furnace slag (BFS), as partial replacement of Portland cement, and containing 50% recycled aggregates, were successfully manufactured. The compressive strength, carbonation resistance, chloride resistance, frost scaling, sorptivity coefficient, and water penetration resistance were thoroughly assessed. The presence of recycled aggregates had an adverse effect on early-age strength, but after 91 days there was no difference between concrete with and without recycled aggregates. The chloride-binding capacity was enhanced in the BFS/NFS system with recycled aggregates (reduction in chloride ingress coefficients of ~28–35% compared to recycled concrete with NFS only). This is most likely caused by the binding of Cl ions in calcium alumina silicate hydrates (C-A-S-H) and ettringite phases. However, when compared to the system with virgin aggregates, BFS/NFS concrete with recycled aggregates showed increased carbonation rate (+30%) and frost scaling (+15%). Durability properties, such as sorptivity and water penetration resistance, were positively affected by the curing time for the BFS/NFS system (~35–45% further improvement from 28 to 90 days with respect to the NFS system). Specimens that were wet cured for 91 days showed improved results compared to the 28-day cured samples due to the slow pozzolanic reaction of the NFS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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21 pages, 7707 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Physical Mechanical Properties and Durability of Sustainable Ultra-High Performance Concrete with Recycled Waste Glass
by Mohamed Amin, Ibrahim Saad Agwa, Nuha Mashaan, Shaker Mahmood and Mahmoud H. Abd-Elrahman
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3085; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043085 - 8 Feb 2023
Cited by 111 | Viewed by 6265
Abstract
Construction material sustainability and waste reuse have emerged as significant environmental issues. Concrete is widely used in the building and engineering fields. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), which has remarkably high mechanical properties, has become one of the most common concrete varieties in recent [...] Read more.
Construction material sustainability and waste reuse have emerged as significant environmental issues. Concrete is widely used in the building and engineering fields. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), which has remarkably high mechanical properties, has become one of the most common concrete varieties in recent years. As a result, substantial amounts of Portland cement (PC) are frequently used, raising the initial cost of UHPC and restricting its broad use in structural applications. A significant amount of CO2 is produced and a large amount of natural resources are consumed in its production. To make UHPC production more eco-friendly and economically viable, it is advised that the PC in concrete preparations be replaced with different additives and that the recycled aggregates from various sources be substituted for natural aggregates. This research aims to develop an environmentally friendly and cost-effective UHPC by using glass waste (GW) of various sizes as an alternative to PC with replacement ratios of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% utilizing glass powder (GP). Fine aggregate “sand (S)” is also replaced by glass particles (G) with replacement ratios of 0%, 50%, and 100%. To accomplish this, 18 mixes, separated into three groups, are made and examined experimentally. Slump flow, mechanical properties, water permeability, and microstructural characteristics are all studied. According to the results, increasing the S replacement ratio with G improved workability. Furthermore, the ideal replacement ratios for replacing PC with GP and S with G to achieve high mechanical properties were 20% and 0%, respectively. Increasing the replacement rate of GP in place of PC at a fixed ratio of G to S resulted in a significant decrease in water permeability values. Finally, a microstructural analysis confirms the experimental findings. In addition, PC100-S100 was the best mix compared to PC100-S50 G50 and PC100-G100. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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19 pages, 3936 KiB  
Article
Thermal Conductivity of Coconut Shell-Incorporated Concrete: A Systematic Assessment via Theory and Experiment
by Akram M. Mhaya, Shahiron Shahidan, Hassan Amer Algaifi, Sharifah Salwa Mohd Zuki, Omrane Benjeddou, Mohd Haziman Wan Ibrahim and Ghasan Fahim Huseien
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16167; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316167 - 3 Dec 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3169
Abstract
To minimize the energy consumption and adverse impact of excessive waste accumulation on the environment, coconut shell (CA) became a potential (partial) replacement agent for fine aggregates in structural concrete production. Thus, systematic experimental and theoretical studies are essential to determine the thermal [...] Read more.
To minimize the energy consumption and adverse impact of excessive waste accumulation on the environment, coconut shell (CA) became a potential (partial) replacement agent for fine aggregates in structural concrete production. Thus, systematic experimental and theoretical studies are essential to determine the thermal and structural properties of such concrete containing optimum level of CA. In this view, an artificial neural network (ANN) model, gene expression programming (GEP) model, and response surface method (RS) were used to predict and optimize the desired engineering characteristics of some concrete mixes designed with various levels of CA inclusion. Furthermore, the proposed model’s performance was assessed in terms of different statistical parameters calculated using ANOVA. The results revealed that the proposed concrete mix made using 53% of CA as a partial replacement of fine aggregate achieved an optimum density of 2246 kg/m3 and thermal conductivity of 0.5952 W/mK, which was lower than the control specimen (0.79 W/mK). The p-value of the optimum concrete mix was less than 0.0001 and the F-value was over 147.47, indicating the significance of all models. It is asserted that ANN, GEP, and RSM are accurate and reliable, and can further be used to predict a strong structural–thermal correlation with minimal error. In brief, the specimen composed with 53% of CA as a replacement for fine aggregate may be beneficial to develop environmentally amiable green structural concrete. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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28 pages, 14482 KiB  
Article
Durability and Acoustic Performance of Rubberized Concrete Containing POFA as Cement Replacement
by Akram M. Mhaya, Shahiron Shahidan, Sharifah Salwa Mohd Zuki, Ghasan Fahim Huseien, Mohamad Azim Mohammad Azmi, Mohammad Ismail and Jahangir Mirza
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15510; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315510 - 22 Nov 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2863
Abstract
Given that rubber tires are almost immune to biological degradation, this vast amount of solid waste is a major environmental concern worldwide. Reuse of these waste tires in the construction industry is one of the strategies to minimize their environmental pollution and landfill [...] Read more.
Given that rubber tires are almost immune to biological degradation, this vast amount of solid waste is a major environmental concern worldwide. Reuse of these waste tires in the construction industry is one of the strategies to minimize their environmental pollution and landfill problems, while contributing to more economical building design. Thus, we assessed the improved traits of rubberized concrete made by combining palm oil fuel ash (POFA) with tire rubber aggregates (TRAs). Studies on the effects of POFA inclusion on the durability properties of rubberized concrete with TRAs as the replacement agent for fine or coarse aggregates remain deficient. Herein, the rubberized concrete contained 20% POFA as ordinary Portland cement (OPC) substitute, and various amounts of TRAs (5, 10, 20 and 30%). The proposed mixes enclosing three types of TRAs (fiber, fine and coarse aggregates) were characterized to determine their durability and acoustic performance. The water absorption, fire endurance performance, chloride penetration, and acoustic properties of the proposed concrete were evaluated. The designed concrete showed a systematic increase in water absorption and chloride penetration with the increase in rubber amount and particle size. These POFA-modified rubberized concretes displayed a satisfactory performance up to 500 °C, and superior acoustic properties in terms of sound absorption. The presence of TRA as 30% coarse aggregate replacement was found to improve the sound absorption properties by as much as 42%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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49 pages, 5761 KiB  
Article
Evaluating Shear Strength of Light-Weight and Normal-Weight Concretes through Artificial Intelligence
by Ahmed M. Ebid, Ahmed Farouk Deifalla and Hisham A. Mahdi
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14010; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114010 - 27 Oct 2022
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2966
Abstract
The strength of concrete elements under shear is a complex phenomenon, which is induced by several effective variables and governing mechanisms. Thus, each parameter’s importance depends on the values of the effective parameters and the governing mechanism. In addition, the new concrete types, [...] Read more.
The strength of concrete elements under shear is a complex phenomenon, which is induced by several effective variables and governing mechanisms. Thus, each parameter’s importance depends on the values of the effective parameters and the governing mechanism. In addition, the new concrete types, including lightweight concrete and fibered concrete, add to the complexity, which is why machine learning (ML) techniques are ideal to simulate this behavior due to their ability to handle fuzzy, inaccurate, and even incomplete data. Thus, this study aims to predict the shear strength of both normal-weight and light-weight concrete beams using three well-known machine learning approaches, namely evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR), artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic programming (GP). The methodology started with collecting a dataset of about 1700 shear test results and dividing it into training and testing subsets. Then, the three considered (ML) approaches were trained using the training subset to develop three predictive models. The prediction accuracy of each developed model was evaluated using the testing subset. Finally, the accuracies of the developed models were compared with the current international design codes (ACI, EC2 & JSCE) to evaluate the success of this research in terms of enhancing the prediction accuracy. The results showed that the prediction accuracies of the developed models were 68%, 83% & 76.5% for GP, ANN & EPR, respectively, and 56%, 40% & 62% for ACI, EC2 & JSCE, in that order. Hence, the results indicated that the accuracy of the worst (ML) model is better than those of design codes, and the ANN model is the most accurate one. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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26 pages, 12656 KiB  
Article
Engineering Properties of High-Volume Fly Ash Modified Cement Incorporated with Bottle Glass Waste Nanoparticles
by Yousef R. Alharbi and Aref A. Abadel
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12459; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912459 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2519
Abstract
Eco-friendly sustainable construction materials with low carbon dioxide emissions and low energy consumption which utilize agricultural and industrial waste are widely recommended. Utilizing high-volume fly ash waste (FA) as a cement replacement will contribute to a reduction in the environmental problems related to [...] Read more.
Eco-friendly sustainable construction materials with low carbon dioxide emissions and low energy consumption which utilize agricultural and industrial waste are widely recommended. Utilizing high-volume fly ash waste (FA) as a cement replacement will contribute to a reduction in the environmental problems related to cement production and landfill disposal. It is well known that the inclusion of high amounts of FA (up to 50%) as a cement replacement leads to low strength performance, especially at a concrete’s early age (below 7 days). In this study, a cement mortar with high-volume FA (60%) was developed with strength enhancement. With nanotechnology and nanomaterial benefits, nanoparticles from bottle glass waste (BGWNP) were produced and used to replace 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10% of cement–FA binder. The results showed that the compressive strength significantly improved with the inclusion of the BGWNP in a high-volume FA matrix and the strength trend increased from 21.3 to 328 MPa with increasing nanoparticle content from 0 to 6%. However, the results indicated that the inclusion of nanoparticles up to 6% led to a slight reduction in strength value. Similar trends were observed for other engineering and microstructure properties and the matrix containing 6% of BGWNP achieved the highest performance compared to that of the control sample. It is concluded that, with the utilization of BGWNP, there is an ability to produce high-volume FA-based cement with acceptable engineering properties as well as achieve sustainability goals by reducing pollution, recycling waste, and resolving landfill issues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Concrete Design)
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