Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.4
3.1
Journals
Buildings
Special Issues
Functional and Smart Materials for Buildings and Constructions
share announcement

Functional and Smart Materials for Buildings and Constructions

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 (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 4428

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vučetić Snežana

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Boulevard Cara Lazara 1, 21101 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: ceramic materials; materials characterization; cultural heritage; durability; development of functional materials
Dr. Ana Bras

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK
Interests: self-healing; bio-based materials; durability; performance-based design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart and functional materials and technologies are arguably the most significant research issues in the building and construction fields in the 21st century.

The development and application of functional and smart materials results in superior durability of buildings and constructions, greater safety, structural stability, and environmental protection. The design of smart technologies is connected to the production of materials that have large benefits from an economic and ecological point of view (usage of waste as raw materials, lower CO2 emissions, better utilisation of available resources, lower maintenance costs, etc.). Moreover, development of these functional and smart materials could infuse fresh ideas and awareness into architectural design.

For this Special Issue, authors are kindly invited to submit high-quality papers on one or more of the following topics related to the design of functional and smart materials and technologies for buildings and constructions:

  • Development and design of sensing materials (external or internal stimuli)
  • Development and design of functional materials (e.g. self-cleaning, self-healing, bio-cleaning, bio-based repair) for novel structures and cultural heritage protection
  • Development of materials for reducing the concentration of health-relevant substances
  • Development of energy-efficient buildings and constructions
  • Smart design and manufacturing of novel materials for environmental protection
  • Reuse and valorisation of waste materials through smart technologies and manufacturing
  • Upgrade and valorisation of traditional technologies for buildings and constructions
  • Development of new methods for characterisation of materials’ functional properties

Papers addressing other related topics will also be considered.

Dr. Vučetić Snežana
Dr. Ana Bras
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

  • functional and smart materials
  • smart technologies and manufacturing
  • environmental protection
  • waste valorisation
  • functional properties characterisation
  • earth-based materials

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 7184 KiB  
Article
Cow Dung Biostabilized Earth Mortars: Reusability and Influence of Cow Dung Processing and Cow Diet
by Raphael N. Pachamama, Paulina Faria, Marco A. P. Rezende and Patrícia M. Moraes
Buildings 2024, 14(11), 3414; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14113414 - 27 Oct 2024
Viewed by 583
Abstract
Historically, cow dung has been widely used as a biostabilizer in earth building, although the scientific research on this subject is still limited. The available research provides evidence of the positive effects of this bioaddition on earthen blocks and plasters, as it improves [...] Read more.
Historically, cow dung has been widely used as a biostabilizer in earth building, although the scientific research on this subject is still limited. The available research provides evidence of the positive effects of this bioaddition on earthen blocks and plasters, as it improves their physical and mechanical properties and durability in water contact. The present research does not aim to characterize biostabilized earthen mortars or to explain the interaction mechanisms between the earth and cow dung components, because this topic has already been investigated. Instead, it aims to investigate strategies to optimize the collection and processing of cow dung so as to optimize their effects when used in earth-plastering mortars, as well as considering the effects of using them fresh whole, dry whole, and dry ground (as a powder); the effects of two different volumetric proportions of cow dung addition, 20% and 40% (of the earth + added sand); the effects of 72 h (fermentation–humid curing) before molding the biostabilized mortar; the influence of the cow diet; and the potential of reusing cow dung stabilized mortars. The results show that as the freshness of the cow dung increases, the mortar’s durability increases under water immersion, as well as the mechanical and adhesive strength. Collecting cow dung fresh and drying (composting) it in a plastic container is more efficient than collecting cow dung that is already dry on the pasture. The cow diet and the use of dry (composted) cow dung, whole or ground into a powder, does not result in a significant difference. A 72 h period of humid curing fermentation increases the adhesive strength and durability under water. The proportion of 40% promotes better durability under water, but 20% offers greater mechanical and adhesive strength. Finally, cow dung addition does not reduce the reusability of the earth mortar. The new mortar obtained by remixing the mortar with water presents increased properties in comparison to the original reference mortar with no cow dung addition. Therefore, the contributions of this research are innovative and important, offering technical support in the area of biostabilized earth-plastering mortars. Furthermore, it is emphasized that cow dung addition can be optimized as an efficient traditional solution to increase the mechanical resistance, but especially to increase the durability of earth mortars when in contact with water. This effect is particularly important for communities lacking financial resources, but also reveals the possibility of using eco-efficient waste instead of binders obtained at high firing temperatures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional and Smart Materials for Buildings and Constructions)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 5914 KiB  
Article
Bio-Induced Healing of Cement Mortars in Demineralized and Danube Water: CNN Model for Image Classification
by Jasmina Nešković, Ivana Jovanović, Siniša Markov, Snežana Vučetić, Jonjaua Ranogajec and Milan Trumić
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1751; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071751 - 10 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1274
Abstract
Reducing the costs of repairing concrete structures damaged due to the appearance of cracks and reducing the number of people involved in the process of their repair is the subject of a multitude of experimental studies. Special emphasis should be placed on research [...] Read more.
Reducing the costs of repairing concrete structures damaged due to the appearance of cracks and reducing the number of people involved in the process of their repair is the subject of a multitude of experimental studies. Special emphasis should be placed on research involving industrial by-products, the disposal of which has a negative environmental impact, as is the case in the research presented in this paper. The basic idea was to prepare a mortar with added granulated blast furnace slag from Smederevo Steel Mill and then treat artificially produced cracks with a Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM 33 suspension under the conditions of both sterile demineralized water and water from the Danube river in order to simulate natural conditions. The results show a bio-stimulated healing efficiency of 32.02% in sterile demineralized water and 42.74% in Danube river water already after 14 days. The SEM images clearly show calcium carbonate crystals as the main compound that has started to fill the crack, and the crystals are much more developed under the Danube river water conditions. As a special type of research, microscopic images of cracks were classified into those with and without the presence of bacterial culture. By applying convolutional neural networks (ResNet 50), the classification success rate was 91.55%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional and Smart Materials for Buildings and Constructions)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 13126 KiB  
Article
Performance Evaluation of a Sustainable Prefabricated System Using Small-Scale Experimental Model Technique
by Ravijanya Chippagiri, Hindavi R. Gavali, Ana Bras and Rahul V. Ralegaonkar
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 2000; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12112000 - 17 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1932
Abstract
The increasing urban population requires rapid housing construction. Rising global temperatures have led to more space cooling options inside buildings. There is a need to design new-age buildings with a sustainable, thermal comfort, and energy-efficiency approach. The present work integrates this approach into [...] Read more.
The increasing urban population requires rapid housing construction. Rising global temperatures have led to more space cooling options inside buildings. There is a need to design new-age buildings with a sustainable, thermal comfort, and energy-efficiency approach. The present work integrates this approach into the design of prefabricated elements. Locally available co-fired ash, along with other sustainable alternates, are used in developing these elements. This study involves a performance evaluation and feasibility assessment of the proposed prefabricated system. A small-scale model house of one-third size is constructed using these elements for the purpose of functional evaluation. An average temperature variation of approximately 4 °C is observed upon comparison with the fly-ash brick model during the peak summer season. During energy assessment, a 12% and 52% decrease in embodied energy and peak cooling loads were observed. The time study resulted in 20% time savings over the conventional technique. The proposed system also includes a solar photo-voltaic panel, which compensates for 30% of the energy demand and reduces approximately 42% of the energy cost. Thus, the developed prefabricated system is found suitable for non-load bearing as well as functional applications. The performed studies determined the system to be sustainable, lightweight, quick, as well as energy efficient. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional and Smart Materials for Buildings and Constructions)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop