Submit to Materials Review for Materials Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2022) | Viewed by 14550

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Cheng Jiang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Interests: concrete structures; FRP; composite structures; structural rehabilitation; durability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Guan Lin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Interests: FRP; structural retrofitting; concrete structures; recycling of concrete; optical fiber sensing technology

Dr. Kohei Nagai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Interests: mesoscopic simulation of failure of concrete material and reinforced concrete; mechanics of fiber reinforced cementitious composites; anchorage performance of reinforced concrete; infrastructure management; utilization of infrastructure data

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental impacts, one of the most important concerns in structural engineering, can significantly influence both long-term behaviors (e.g., coastal infrastructure facing aggressive environment from oceans) and short-term behaviors (e.g., structural failure due to fire) of structures. Therefore, it is important to investigate the environmental impact on the mechanical properties of construction materials. Furthermore, the construction materials used nowadays involve not only conventional concrete and steel, but also other advanced materials such as fiber reinforcement polymer (FRP), ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), and engineered cementitious composite (ECC).

The aim of this Special Issue is to understand the mechanism of the mechanical deterioration due to environmental impact on construction materials. This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality studies in terms of the durability problem, as well as review the advances in recent years. Original, high-quality contributions that are not published elsewhere are to be included in this Special Issue. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Field exposure tests of construction materials;
Laboratory accelerated tests of construction materials;
Thermal performance of materials under fire;
Durability of advanced materials;
Numerical simulation with environmental effects;
Advanced technology for monitoring structural behaviors;
Multi-scale investigations of advanced materials.

Dr. Cheng Jiang
Dr. Guan Lin
Dr. Kohei Nagai
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. Materials 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 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

environmental effect
concrete
advanced materials
composite materials and structures
durability
structural deterioration

Published Papers (7 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 12272 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study of Thermally Damaged Concrete under a Hygrothermal Environment by Using a Combined Infrared Thermal Imaging and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Method

by Yi Wang, Jiajie Cui, Jun Deng and Hao Zhou

Materials 2023, 16(3), 1040; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma16031040 - 24 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1210

Abstract

This paper proposes a combined inspection method for thermally damaged concrete under a hygrothermal environment. Experiments were conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. Concrete samples with different water–cement ratios (W/C = 0.3, 0.5, 0.7) and moisture contents (dried, 50% saturated, fully saturated) were exposed to elevated temperatures of 200 °C, 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C for 4 h. After cooling to room temperature, infrared thermal imaging (IRT), ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurements, and mechanical tests were carried out for the damaged concrete samples. The mechanical behavior of thermally damaged concrete with different degrees of water saturation was examined based on mechanical testing. The results show that water can affect the compressive strength and UPV of concrete under certain circumstances, and the residual strength and the heating temperature of the thermally damaged concrete can be evaluated by IRT and UPV measurements. When 50% saturated concrete specimens with a W/C ratio of 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 are exposed to 200 °C, 12.6%, 27.4%, and 34.6% increases in normalized compressive strength were observed before dropping to approximately 40% at 800 °C. With various moisture contents, the normalized compressive strength variation can be up to 40% at 400 °C in cases with W/C = 0.5 and 0.7. As for UPV, it generally decreases with the increase in moisture content when the peak temperature is 800 °C. On the contrary, whether concrete is saturated or not, there is little difference in temperature change in IRT detection. To obtain a more precise evaluation of concrete structures, IRT can be used to scan a large area to determine the damaged concrete area and areas suspected to be damaged, while UPV could be used to detect concrete members in suspected areas after the completion of IRT scanning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 6085 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Assessment of Mineralogical Characteristics of Clays and the Effect of Waste Materials on Their Index Properties for the Production of Bricks

by Aamar Danish, Ermedin Totiç, Muhammed Bayram, Mücahit Sütçü, Osman Gencel, Ertuğrul Erdoğmuş and Togay Ozbakkaloglu

Materials 2022, 15(24), 8908; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15248908 - 13 Dec 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2552

Abstract

Significant research investigations on the characteristics of unexplored clay deposits are being conducted in light of the growing need for clay in the ceramic industry and the variable chemistry of clays. Parallel to this, the generation of waste materials like fly ash, ferrochrome slag, and silica fume is also increasing, responsible for environmental degradation. This paper aims to study the mineralogical properties of pure clays (one specimen from Siberia and five specimens from different locations in Turkey), and the effect of mentioned waste materials on the index properties of clays obtained. This study is divided into two phases, wherein in the first phase, the pure clay specimens are analyzed against mineralogical properties (i.e., chemical composition, thermal analysis, and particle size distribution). While in the second phase, index properties of pure clay specimens and clay specimens modified with 0–50% fly ash, ferrochrome slag, and silica fume are analyzed. The results reveal that the clay specimens from Turkey (USCS classification: CL) are fit for the ceramic industry and bricks production, and incorporation of waste materials can further improve their index properties. It is also observed that incorporation of 10–30% fly ash and ferrochrome slag have higher efficiency in reducing the plasticity index of clays studied as compared to the addition of silica fume. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

29 pages, 10771 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Data-Based Statistical Analysis of Laboratory Experiments on Concrete Frost Damage and Its Implications on Service Life Prediction

by Fuyuan Gong, Dian Zhi, Jianguo Jia, Zhao Wang, Yingjie Ning, Bo Zhang and Tamon Ueda

Materials 2022, 15(18), 6282; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15186282 - 09 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1237

Abstract

To meet the requirements of durability design for concrete suffering frost damage, several test standards have been launched. Among the various damage indexes such as deteriorated compressive strength, relative dynamic elastic modulus (RDEM), residual deformation, etc., the concept of a “Durability Factor” (DF) is proposed by many standards to define the frost resistivity of concrete against frost action based on the experimental results from standard tests. Through a review of the literature, a clear tendency of strength/RDEM decay and residual deformation increase is captured with increasing cycles of freezing and thawing. However, tests following different standards finally derive huge scattering quantitative responses of frost resistance. Based on the large database of available laboratory experiments, this study presents a statistical analysis to propose a predictable model to calculate the DF with respect to other material factors. The statistical model is believed to be more convenient for engineering applications since the time-consuming experiment is no longer needed, and it is more precise compared with that developed according to only single experimental results to cover the uncertainties and unavoidable errors in specific tests. Moreover, the formula to calculate the DF is revised into a more general form so as to be applicable for all the laboratory experiments even for those cases without fully following the standards to derive a DF value. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 4831 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on the Durability of Steel Anchors for Prestressed CFRP Laminates under Accelerated Galvanostatic Corrosion

by Jun Deng, Minting Zhong, Yifeng Zheng and Miaochang Zhu

Materials 2022, 15(16), 5665; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15165665 - 18 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1325

Abstract

The novelty of the present study is to address the durability of corroded anchors for prestressing CFRP laminates. Two types of steel anchors, clamp anchors and wedge anchors, were used to prestress CFRP laminates and then subjected to steel corrosion through a galvanostatic acceleration approach, which was followed by tensile tests. Compared to clamp anchors, wedge anchors showed a superior durability performance in terms of their prestress retention, anchor efficiency, and resistance to the slippage of the CFRP laminate. After accelerated corrosion for 144 h, the clamp anchor exhibited a prestress retention of 79.1% and an anchorage efficiency of 55%, and the percentages became 9.0% and 100% for the wedge anchor. The slippage rates of the clamp anchor and the wedge anchor were 0.036 mm/kN and 0.026 mm/kN, respectively. Therefore, the wedge anchor, which exhibited higher prestress tension and anchorage efficiency, performed better than the clamp anchor. The present work provides an apparatus for exploring the corrosion-induced durability of steel anchors and experimental evidence that helps refine the provision in the guidelines for addressing anchor durability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 4569 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study of Emulative Precast Concrete Beam-to-Column Connections Locally Reinforced by U-Shaped UHPC Shells

by Lei Tang, Wenhua Tian, Dongzhi Guan and Zixuan Chen

Materials 2022, 15(12), 4066; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15124066 - 08 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3697

Abstract

Precast beam–column connections act as vital elements of precast concrete frames. To enhance the resistance to the earthquake-induced damage and environment-induced deterioration of precast beam–column connections, an innovative precast concrete beam-to-column connection locally enhanced by prefabricated ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) shells was proposed. For studying the seismic behaviors of these novel connections and the influence caused by the prefabricated UHPC shell length, full-scale precast specimens were experimentally investigated using low-cyclic reversed loading tests. The obtained results were analyzed and discussed, including hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, strength and deformability, performance degradation, energy dissipation capacities, and plastic hinge length. The results reveal that the novel precast concrete beam–column connections with UHPC shells behaved satisfactorily under seismic loadings. The damage in the concrete near the lower part of the beam end is reduced by the prefabricated UHPC shells. The longer prefabricated UHPC shells were more useful for decreasing the damage to the precast concrete components and improved the structural performance. The precast specimen with 600-mm long UHPC shells can achieve a ductility of 4.87 and 4.0% higher strength than the monolithic reference specimen. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1634 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unified Stress–Strain Model of FRP-Confined Square and Circle Rubber Concrete Columns

by Yugui Cao, Guoxu Zhao, Yang Zhang, Can Hou and Ling Mao

Materials 2022, 15(5), 1832; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15051832 - 28 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1553

Abstract

Studying the stress–strain relationship of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined rubber concrete (RuC) plays an important role in its application in engineering projects. Most of the existing stress–strain relationship models are established based on the test data of FRP-confined rubber concrete with circular cross-sections, and the effect of the section shape is not considered. Therefore, an analysis-oriented stress–strain model of FRP-confined circular and square rubber concrete columns was studied in this paper for the first time. A database that includes the rubber particle content and section shape on the peak stress-peak strain and axial–lateral strain relationship of FRP-confined rubber concrete was established by collecting 235 test data from the literature. By modifying the key parameters in the existing FRP-confined normal concrete stress–strain relationship model, a unified stress–strain relationship model of FRP-confined RuC with circular and square columns is established. The proposed model is verified, and a good accuracy of the model is proven. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 17376 KiB

Open AccessReview

Bitumen Aging—Laboratory Simulation Methods Used in Practice and Selected Directions of Research on New Methods

by Paweł Czajkowski, Andrzej Przyjazny and Grzegorz Boczkaj

Materials 2023, 16(2), 853; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma16020853 - 16 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1625

Abstract

Changes in the properties of bitumen binders that occur as a result of aging have a huge impact on the durability of products produced from them. In particular, asphalt pavements, which constitute the most common use of petroleum bitumen, are susceptible to damage resulting from the increasing stiffness of the bitumen during its life cycle. Increased stiffness of asphalt pavements reduces the pavement resistance to low-temperature cracks and fatigue cracks, ultimately leading to the loss of their functional properties and the need for road repair. The rate of changes in bitumen properties is influenced by many factors, the most important of which are environmental conditions, technological parameters of binder processing, and physicochemical properties. The greatest impact on minimizing the adverse effect of aging is the use of bitumen suitably resistant to aging, and changing the technological parameters of its application. This article reviews the literature and standardized test methods of bitumen aging, with a focus on the methods that are most often used in practice, to evaluate the suitability of bitumen for use in road construction. The presented methods are limited to aging simulation. This mini-review presents the most important stages of aging procedures, their advantages and limitations, as identified by the authors of this publication for different types of bitumen. Moreover, the most important directions of developments in the field of new laboratory aging tests are highlighted. The suggestions are based on the industrial practice of the authors of this review, taking into account identified demands for quality control in the industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Impact on Mechanical Properties of Construction Materials)

► Show Figures