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To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings

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A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2024) | Viewed by 20702

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xi Jiang

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
2. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interests: construction materials; pavement engineering; tunnel engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Pawel Polaczyk

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Guest Editor

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Interests: pavement engineering; traffic engineering; road materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Rui Xiao

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Interests: cement chemistry; soil improvement; construction materials

Dr. Wei Hu

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Interests: infrastructure materials; construction technology; traffic safety

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the intensive development of cities, environmental issues have been very popular in both industry and academia. Thus, there is an urgent need to use cleaner materials or environmental production to construct new infrastructures and buildings. This Special Issue, titled “To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials towards Sustainable and Green Construction”, will address advances in cleaner production, cleaner and responsible consumption, cleaner engineering and technology, and cleaner materials.

In this context, this Special Issue was conceived to pose important questions for authors to address in their studies:

How can we help to realize the aim of carbon neutrality?
What can we do to make the infrastructures more sustainable?
How can we help to improve the urban resilience?

In relation to these wide-ranging issues, the potential subjects for this Special Issue include (but are not limited to):

Green construction materials;
Sustainable infrastructures;
Novel approaches to improve the urban resilience;
Case studies of sustainable constructions;
Lifecycle analysis of sustainable structures;
Development of resilient construction.

Research articles, review papers, case studies and technical notes are welcome. I hope your contributions will provide a good overview of sustainable and cleaner development. In addition, our efforts are able to contribute to urban resilience. Therefore, I would like to invite you to share your research work with us and submit your papers to this Special Issue.

Dr. Xi Jiang
Dr. Pawel Polaczyk
Dr. Rui Xiao
Dr. Wei Hu
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. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

cleaner production
green construction
urban resilience
cleaner materials
sustainable technology
sustainable manufacturing

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 2290 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preparation and Properties of Waterborne Epoxy-Resin-Emulsified Asphalt Modified by Oxidized Extraction Oil

by Tao Ai, Hua Pang, Xuanxuan Wu, Danni Zhong, Kun Yang, Xin Yan and Yanhui Niu

Buildings 2022, 12(12), 2133; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings12122133 - 05 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1447

Abstract

Waterborne epoxy-resin-emulsified asphalt (WEREA) has excellent adhesion and can be used as a good waterproofing tack coat; however, there are some problems such as the poor compatibility between the waterborne epoxy and the emulsified asphalt, and the brittleness of the cured material. In the present work, oxidized furfural extract oil was used as a compatibilizer to prepare the waterborne epoxy emulsion and waterborne epoxy-resin-emulsified asphalt, and their modification effects were studied. The extraction oil was oxidized with potassium permanganate. The effects of oxidized extraction oil on the waterborne epoxy-resin-emulsified asphalt performance were investigated through experiments on viscosity, mechanical properties, and aging resistance. Combined with infrared spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy, the compatibility and microstructure of the oxidized extraction oil modified WEREA were observed and analyzed. The result showed that the carboxyl group was introduced into the chemical structure of the extraction oil after oxidation. Oxidized extraction oil (OEO) and waterborne epoxy resin (WER) had good compatibility. When the content of OEO in the WER is 21%, the elongation at break of the WER can reach up to a maximum of 91.5%, and has a significant increase of 33.2%. OEO can significantly improve the elongation at the break and aging resistance of WEREA, especially when the mix ratio of oxidized extraction oil and epoxy resin was 6:5, when the breaking elongation of WEREA can be increased by 69%, and the compatibility between the epoxy resin and emulsified asphalt was the best. Moreover, the loss in elongation at the break of aged WEREA decreased from 13.7% to 4.9%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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17 pages, 4222 KiB

Open AccessArticle

SmartRock-Based Research on Gyratory Locking Point for Stone Mastic Asphalt Mixture

by Zhiqiang Cheng, De Zhang, Shengjia Xie, Pawel Andrzej Polaczyk and Tao Wang

Buildings 2022, 12(2), 97; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings12020097 - 20 Jan 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2290

Abstract

For gyratory compaction, the concept of the locking point was initially developed to identify the compactability of asphalt mixes and to alleviate potential aggregate crushing in the mold. Most previous studies on the locking point were based on specimens’ height change. Recent studies have indicated that the gyratory locking point of cold mix asphalt mixtures could be determined by the rotation angle range indicator using SmartRock. However, height or rotation angle change ultimately reflects a change in volume. Additionally, there is no clear physical and mechanical connection between the volume change and the gyratory locking point. In this paper, a stone mastic asphalt mixture (SMA 13) was selected for gyratory compaction applying various compaction temperatures. The compaction data were recorded by a SmartRock embedded in different positions. Collected data included stress, rotation angle, and acceleration. The major findings are as follows: (1) the specimen’s locking point could be determined based on a representative stress value when the SmartRock was embedded in the specimen’s center, and the results are close to the traditional evaluation results (LP3 or LP2-2-3); (2) the representative rotation angle value reached a plateau earlier than the representative stress value; (3) the representative acceleration value is not suitable for characterizing the interlocking process during gyratory compaction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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18 pages, 2773 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation for Low Temperature Performance of SBS Modified Asphalt by Dynamic Shear Rheometer Method

by Tao Wang, Xuelei Wei, De Zhang, Hai Shi and Zhiqiang Cheng

Buildings 2021, 11(9), 408; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings11090408 - 13 Sep 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2527

Abstract

Finding an alternative or supplementary test method to evaluating the low temperature performance of asphalt is an area of considerable interest. This paper tries to explore the possibility of using the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) method for assessing the low temperature properties of styrenebutadienestyrene (SBS) modified asphalt. In the study, 60/80 and 80/100 pen grade asphalt binders, named binder A-70, binder B-70 and binder C-90, are used to produce the SBS modified asphalt samples. After that, the low temperature performance of the asphalt binders is characterized by using bending beam rheometer (BBR) test. The results indicate that the low temperature performance of the different binders is related to the source of the binder. The low temperature performance of asphalt could be improved with the addition of the SBS. The DSR test is used to develop the complex modulus master curves for binders. Based on the principle of time–temperature conversion, the glass transition temperature of asphalt is calculated by the Williams–Landel–Ferry (WLF) equation. The glass transition temperatures (T_g) of base asphalt and the SBS modified asphalt are determined by the viscoelastic parameters of the master curve and the WLF equation coefficients based on the time–temperature superposition principle. By establishing the relationship between the critical temperature and the T_g of the asphalt binder, the effectiveness of the method established in this paper is verified. The advantage of this method is the ability to use the DSR test for the rapid evaluation of the low temperature performance of asphalt, which is able to reduce testing materials and save testing time as well. The glass transition temperature of the SBS modified asphalt is closely associated with aging degree, asphalt source and the SBS content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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12 pages, 3821 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Red Mud Content on the Compressive Strength of Geopolymers under Different Curing Systems

by Tao Ai, Danni Zhong, Yao Zhang, Jingshan Zong, Xin Yan and Yanhui Niu

Buildings 2021, 11(7), 298; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings11070298 - 07 Jul 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3148

Abstract

To maximize the utilization of red mud in geopolymers, a red mud–metakaolin (RM-MK) geopolymer and red mud–fly ash (RM-FA) geopolymer were prepared, respectively. The effects of red mud content on the compressive strength and microstructure of the geopolymers were investigated under three different curing conditions. The results showed that the strength of the geopolymer decreased linearly with an increase in the red mud content, whether curing at room temperature or 80 °C. Surprisingly, curing in an autoclave, the appropriate amount of red mud had a favorable impact on the mechanical properties of the geopolymers. When the amount of red mud was 50%, the strength of the RM-MK geopolymer reached its highest compressive strength, 36.3 MPa, and the strength of the RM-FA geopolymer reached its highest at 31.7 MPa. Compared with curing at low temperature, curing the red mud-based geopolymers under a higher temperature and higher pressure can maximize the use of red mud. XRD analysis indicated that zeolite minerals formed. The SEM results showed that the geopolymers cured in an autoclave had a dense structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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Review

Jump to: Research

22 pages, 1733 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review: Progress in Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Portland Cement (Geopolymer)—Based Composites and the Interface between These Matrices and Reinforced Material

by Li Li, Yujie Wei, Qi Feng, Fang Liu, Bin Liu and Beichen Pu

Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1875; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings13071875 - 24 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1732

Abstract

Molecular dynamics (MD) is an important method for studying the molecular and atomic scale of cement (geopolymer)-based composites which provides an effective method for the optimal design of cementitious materials. In this paper, the research progress of MD simulation in Portland cement and geopolymer-based materials is discussed in detail, including molecular structure models of calcium silicate hydrate, calcium aluminosilicate hydrate, sodium aluminum silicate hydrate gel, and auxiliary experimental techniques. The basic mechanical properties of calcium silicate hydrate, calcium aluminosilicate hydrate and sodium aluminum silicate hydrate in Portland cement-based materials (CBM) and geopolymer-based materials are reviewed. In addition, the dynamic simulation of the interface between CBM and reinforcement materials such as rebar, synthetic fibers, plant fibers and nanoparticles is also discussed. Through the macroscopic experimental results of cement (geopolymer)-based materials and the performance analysis of an MD microscopic model, MD helps to better explain the macroscopic properties of materials, and can quickly and conveniently analyze the mechanical properties, transport properties and interface properties of composite materials, so as to improve the fine design of cement (geopolymer)-based materials. Existing structural models and force fields are affected by environment and time, and MD simulation shows great differences in application range and characterization ability. It is necessary to further study and reveal the internal mechanism for improving concrete performance through a large number of experiments and MD simulation, and lay a theoretical foundation for preparing the next generation of (super) high-performance concrete. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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23 pages, 5158 KiB

Open AccessReview

Performance Improvement of Recycled Concrete Aggregates and Their Potential Applications in Infrastructure: A Review

by Shuxia Han, Songbo Zhao, Dong Lu and Daiyu Wang

Buildings 2023, 13(6), 1411; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings13061411 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2819

Abstract

In the construction industry, natural aggregates (NA) can be replaced by recycled concrete aggregates (RCA), which can address the issue of construction-waste disposal and resolve the dilemma between demand and supply. This paper aims to systematically review the modification of RCA techniques and their application in producing recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). First, the pretreatment approaches for enhancing the properties of RCA are introduced. Next, the improved efficiency of these approaches and their influences on the workability, mechanical strengths, and permeability of RAC are analyzed and discussed. Subsequently, the effectiveness of different techniques and their cost/environmental impact are compared. Finally, some case studies of the application of RCA in infrastructure are presented, and the remaining challenges and perspectives are discussed. The results of this review work can extend the knowledge of RCA and RAC, as well as serving as a source of inspiration for further studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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24 pages, 1267 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Ash-Incorporated Concrete: One Step towards Environmental Justice

by Jiaqi Li

Buildings 2021, 11(11), 495; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/buildings11110495 - 20 Oct 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4820

Abstract

Municipal solid waste and cement manufacture are two sources of environmental justice issues in urban and suburban areas. Waste utilization is an attractive alternative to disposal for eliminating environmental injustice, reducing potential hazards, and improving urban sustainability. The re-use and recycling of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash in the construction industry has drawn significant attention. Incorporating MSWI ash in cement and concrete production is a potential path that mitigates the environmental justice issues in waste management and the construction industry. This paper presents a critical overview of the pretreatment methods that optimize MSWI ash utilization in cement/concrete and the influences of MSWI ash on the performance of cement/concrete. This review aims to elucidate the potential advantages and limitations associated with the use of MSWI ash for producing cement clinker, alternative binder (e.g., alkali-activated material), cement substitutes, and aggregates. A brief overview of the generation and characteristics of MSWI ash is reported, accompanied by identifying opportunities for the use of MSWI ash-incorporated products in industrial-scale applications and recognizing associated environmental justice implications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue To Improve Urban Resilience: Cleaner Materials and Technologies towards Sustainable and Green Construction of Buildings)

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