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Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials
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Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 4757

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wenkui Dong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Construction Materials, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Interests: piezoresistive cement-based sensors; recycled concrete with rubber or glass wastes; durability and microstructures of cementitious materials; fiber-reinforced composites
Dr. Junfei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Interests: low-carbon building materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing environmental problems such as global warming, resource and energy depletion, and environmental pollution have hindered the sustainable development of society, the economy, energy and the environment. In particular, the construction of infrastructure and buildings plays an essential role in global CO2 emission, energy consumption, and environment pollution of soil and water contamination with construction wastes. Currently, the recycling of construction wastes such as steel, aggregate, wood, brick, and glass is critical to achieve sustainable construction. In addition, the life cycle assessment of these construction materials has been demonstrated as an efficient way to evaluate the economic and environmental impact from the perspective of their whole life in the construction industry.

This Special Issue, “Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials” aims to address the latest research and practices of adopting the life cycle to assess the sustainability of construction materials, as well as exploring new developments in sustainable construction materials. This Special Issue covers themes from various perspectives, including, but not limited to:

  • Novel life cycle and sustainability assessment methodologies for construction materials.
  • Novel sustainable construction methods.
  • Low-carbon cementitious materials.
  • Sustainable construction materials with special functions (such as self-sensing, self-heating, and self-healing properties).
  • Sustainable construction materials with recycled binders, aggregates, or reinforcements.
  • Engineering properties of sustainable cement, asphalt, or polymer composites.
  • Recycling of construction wastes.

Dr. Wenkui Dong
Dr. Junfei Zhang
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

  • sustainable construction materials
  • life cycle assessment
  • construction wastes
  • functional construction materials
  • self-sensing property
  • low-carbon concrete
  • self-heating pavement
  • mechanical and durable properties

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1813 KiB  
Article
Carbon Emission Reduction Evaluation of End-of-Life Buildings Based on Multiple Recycling Strategies
by Bin Lei, Wanying Yang, Yusong Yan, Zhuo Tang and Wenkui Dong
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 15711; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su152215711 - 07 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1181
Abstract
With the promotion of sustainability in the buildings and construction sector, the carbon saving strategies for the end-of-life (EoL) phase have been receiving increasing attention. In this research, life cycle assessment (LCA) theory was employed to study and compare the carbon savings benefits [...] Read more.
With the promotion of sustainability in the buildings and construction sector, the carbon saving strategies for the end-of-life (EoL) phase have been receiving increasing attention. In this research, life cycle assessment (LCA) theory was employed to study and compare the carbon savings benefits of three different management strategies (i.e., recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse) on the EoL phase of various buildings (including residential, office, commercial, and school buildings). Moreover, the carbon savings potential (CSP) was calculated and analyzed, which is defined as the percentage of the actual carbon savings to the sum of the total embodied carbon of the building. Results show that compared with traditional demolition and landfill treatment, the implementation of integrated management strategies for residential, office, commercial, and school buildings can reduce carbon emissions by 193.5–526.4 kgCO2-e/m2. Among the building materials, steel bar, structural steel, and concrete account for the major proportion of the total carbon savings of buildings (81.5–93.2%). The sequence of the CSPs for the four types of buildings, in descending order, is school, residential, commercial, and office buildings. A building with a life span of 50 years has the greatest CSP. The results of the study can be used to reduce environmental impacts, and have broad positive implications in terms of sustainable construction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials)
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19 pages, 5113 KiB  
Article
Mechanical and Thermal Insulation Properties of rGFRP Fiber-Reinforced Lightweight Fly-Ash-Slag-Based Geopolymer Mortar
by Mo Zhang, Xinxin Qiu, Si Shen, Ling Wang and Yongquan Zang
Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7200; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15097200 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1016
Abstract
As a lightweight cementitious material for thermal insulation, the mechanical performance of foamed geopolymer is always compromised by its density reduction. In this study, recycled-glass-fiber-reinforced plastic (rGFRP) fiber was used to reinforce the fly ash-slag based foamed geopolymer, and vitrified micro bubbles (VMB) [...] Read more.
As a lightweight cementitious material for thermal insulation, the mechanical performance of foamed geopolymer is always compromised by its density reduction. In this study, recycled-glass-fiber-reinforced plastic (rGFRP) fiber was used to reinforce the fly ash-slag based foamed geopolymer, and vitrified micro bubbles (VMB) were applied to further decrease the thermal conductivity and modify the resistance of the lightweight mortar against drying shrinkage. The results revealed that the density, compressive strength, and thermal conductivity of the foamed geopolymer with/without VMB decreased with the increase in foaming agent content. By adding 2~6% of rGFRP fiber, the compressive strength was increased by 25~165%, and the drying shrinkage was reduced the most, by 55%. After the addition of 10% of VMB, the density, thermal conductivity, and drying shrinkage of foamed geopolymer mortar were further decreased, with the highest reductions of 8%, 26%, and 64%, respectively, due to the reduced pore volume and increase proportion of closed pores. With 6% of rGFRP fiber and 25% of foaming agent, the lightweight geopolymer mortar had the optimum performance, with compressive strength of 1.343 MPa, thermal conductivity of 0.134 W/(m·K), and drying shrinkage of 0.095%. This study developed a sustainable lightweight mortar with multiple types of industrial by-products, which benefit both the development of thermal insulation materials and reuse of solid wastes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials)
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13 pages, 2934 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Vertical Temperature Gradients and Their Effects on Hybrid Girder Cable-Stayed Bridges
by Hongmei Tan, Dacheng Qian, Yan Xu, Mofang Yuan and Hanbing Zhao
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1053; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15021053 - 06 Jan 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1895
Abstract
The real temperature distribution within 24 h of the main beam in a single-tower hybrid beam cable-stayed bridge is analysed according to its actual section and material parameters, as well as other factors of local atmospheric temperature, geographical environment, and solar intensity. The [...] Read more.
The real temperature distribution within 24 h of the main beam in a single-tower hybrid beam cable-stayed bridge is analysed according to its actual section and material parameters, as well as other factors of local atmospheric temperature, geographical environment, and solar intensity. The results show that the internal temperature distribution in the steel–concrete composite beam is uneven, and the temperature of the steel is higher than that at the surface of the concrete slab. Then, a finite element model of the whole bridge is established using the thermal–mechanical sequential coupling function in ABAQUS to acquire the structural response under the action of a 24-h temperature field. The results show that the vertical temperature gradients have a great influence on the longitudinal stress in the lower flange of the steel I-beam, with a maximum compressive stress of 11.9 MPa in the daytime and a maximum tensile stress of 13.36 MPa at midnight. The temperature rise leads to a downward deflection of the main span, and the maximum deflection occurs at the 1/4 main span. There was an obvious temperature gradient in the concrete slab, with a difference between the maximum and minimum value of 14 °C. Similarly, the longitudinal compressive stress of the concrete slab increases with increasing temperature in the daytime, but the peak time is obviously inconsistent with that of the steel beam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle and Sustainability of Building Materials)
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