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Sustainable Construction II
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Sustainable Construction II

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 37763

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Víctor Yepes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Construction Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Interests: multi-objective optimization; structure optimization; lifecycle assessment; social sustainability of infrastructures; reliability-based maintenance optimization; optimization and decision making under uncertainty
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. José V. Martí

E-Mail
Guest Editor
ICITECH, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Interests: multiobjective optimization; structures optimization; lifecycle assessment; social sustainability of infrastructures; construction engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, Sustainable Construction II, comprises selected papers for Sustainability. Construction is one of the main sectors generating greenhouse gases. This industry consumes large amounts of raw materials, such as stone, timber, and water. Additionally, infrastructure should provide service over many years, without safety problems. Therefore, their correct design, construction, maintenance, and dismantling are essential in order to reduce economic, environmental, and societal consequences. This is why promoting sustainable construction is becoming extremely important nowadays. This Special Issue is seeking papers that explore new ways of reducing the environmental impacts caused by the construction sector, as well promoting social progress and economic growth. These objectives include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The use of sustainable materials in construction
  • The development of technologies and processes intended to improve sustainability in construction
  • The optimization of designs based on sustainable indicators
  • The reduction of the economic, environmental, and social impact caused by production processes
  • The promotion of durable materials that reduce future maintenance
  • Life-cycle assessment
  • Decision-making processes that integrate the economic, social, and environmental aspects

Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure, with the aim of the rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Dr. Víctor Yepes
Prof. Dr. José V. Martí
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 materials
  • life-cycle assessment
  • sustainable and efficient technologies and processes
  • design optimization
  • durable materials
  • maintenance minimization
  • decision-making

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1524 KiB  
Article
Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of Optimized Post-Tensioned Concrete Road Bridges
by Vicent Penadés-Plà, David Martínez-Muñoz, Tatiana García-Segura, Ignacio J. Navarro and Víctor Yepes
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4265; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104265 - 22 May 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5552
Abstract
Most of the definitions of sustainability include three basic pillars: economic, environmental, and social. The economic pillar has always been evaluated but not necessarily in the sense of economic sustainability. On the other hand, the environmental pillar is increasingly being considered, while the [...] Read more.
Most of the definitions of sustainability include three basic pillars: economic, environmental, and social. The economic pillar has always been evaluated but not necessarily in the sense of economic sustainability. On the other hand, the environmental pillar is increasingly being considered, while the social pillar is weakly developed. Focusing on the environmental and social pillars, the use of methodologies to allow a wide assessment of these pillars and the integration of the assessment in a few understandable indicators is crucial. This article is structured into two parts. In the first part, a review of life cycle impact assessment methods, which allow a comprehensive assessment of the environmental and social pillars, is carried out. In the second part, a complete environmental and social sustainability assessment is made using the ecoinvent database and ReCiPe method, for the environmental pillar, and SOCA database and simple Social Impact Weighting method, for the social pillar. This methodology was used to compare three optimized bridges: two box-section post-tensioned concrete road bridges with a variety of initial and maintenance characteristics, and a pre-stressed concrete precast bridge. The results show that there is a high interrelation between the environmental and social impact for each life cycle stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction II)
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20 pages, 2666 KiB  
Article
Application of Fuzzy and Rough Sets to Environmental Zonation for Concrete Durability: A Case Study of Shaanxi Province, China
by Daming Luo, Yan Wang, Shaohui Zhang and Ditao Niu
Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3128; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083128 - 13 Apr 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 13410
Abstract
The durability of concrete structures is influenced by various factors, and the durability damage mechanism is different when the structure is in different environmental conditions. This will have implications for improving the durability of concrete structures and extending its service life if the [...] Read more.
The durability of concrete structures is influenced by various factors, and the durability damage mechanism is different when the structure is in different environmental conditions. This will have implications for improving the durability of concrete structures and extending its service life if the special environmental condition is taken into account in the durability design. Aimed at the environmental zonation for concrete durability, this paper investigated the durability factors influencing concrete structures in Shaanxi Province, China, including atmospheric temperature, precipitation, corrosive gas, and acid rain. The variations of the above-mentioned factors were analyzed and the indexes of environmental zonation were proposed. According to the zoning principle, the weights of zoning indexes calculated using fuzzy rough sets were used to divide Shaanxi Province into three first-level zones, namely the Freeze-Thaw Cycle Zone, the Neutralization–Freeze-Thaw Interaction Zone, and the Neutralization Zone. These three zones were then subdivided into nine second-level zones. The main mechanism of concrete deterioration and the environmental characteristics of all zones were then analyzed. The method proposed in this paper puts forward clear zoning indexes and quantifies them, which can improve the quality and accuracy of the zoning results. Moreover, the research achievements are helpful for engineers to reduce the impact of the environment on structure and the maintenance cost during the structural service life to a certain extent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction II)
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23 pages, 7498 KiB  
Article
A Novel Construction Technology for Self-Anchored Suspension Bridge Considering Safety and Sustainability Performance
by Xiaoming Wang, Xudong Wang, You Dong and Chengshu Wang
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2973; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072973 - 08 Apr 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 10893
Abstract
To promote sustainable development of civil infrastructures, minimizing environmental impact and mobility disruptions have been elevated to a higher priority during decision-making for bridge construction scheme. This study presents a novel temporary pylon-anchor (TPA) technology for construction of self-anchored suspension bridges by considering [...] Read more.
To promote sustainable development of civil infrastructures, minimizing environmental impact and mobility disruptions have been elevated to a higher priority during decision-making for bridge construction scheme. This study presents a novel temporary pylon-anchor (TPA) technology for construction of self-anchored suspension bridges by considering not only safety performance, but also environmental impacts. A practical assessment method and index of sustainability associated with bridge construction technology are established to facilitate the selection of construction schemes. The sustainability index takes the environmental impact, traffic disruption, onsite construction materials and equipment, onsite construction cost, and onsite construction risk into consideration. The sustainability index associated with both conventional and novel construction methods is assessed and compared in this paper. Specifically, a novel girder-pylon antithrust system (GPAS) is proposed, which is the crucial component of the TPA technology in engineering application. In addition, an analytical approach is developed, considering both global load-carrying capacity and local stress distribution within the design and construction of the GPAS. The applicability and rationality of the proposed construction technology are illustrated by the successful application in real-world engineering. The field tests and sustainability assessment during the construction stage reveal that the proposed sustainability assessment method and analytical approach can facilitate the implementation of sustainable construction for self-anchored suspension bridges by considering both construction safety and sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction II)
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18 pages, 770 KiB  
Article
Black Hole Algorithm for Sustainable Design of Counterfort Retaining Walls
by Víctor Yepes, José V. Martí and José García
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2767; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072767 - 01 Apr 2020
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 4257
Abstract
The optimization of the cost and CO 2 emissions in earth-retaining walls is of relevance, since these structures are often used in civil engineering. The optimization of costs is essential for the competitiveness of the construction company, and the optimization of emissions is [...] Read more.
The optimization of the cost and CO 2 emissions in earth-retaining walls is of relevance, since these structures are often used in civil engineering. The optimization of costs is essential for the competitiveness of the construction company, and the optimization of emissions is relevant in the environmental impact of construction. To address the optimization, black hole metaheuristics were used, along with a discretization mechanism based on min–max normalization. The stability of the algorithm was evaluated with respect to the solutions obtained; the steel and concrete values obtained in both optimizations were analyzed. Additionally, the geometric variables of the structure were compared. Finally, the results obtained were compared with another algorithm that solved the problem. The results show that there is a trade-off between the use of steel and concrete. The solutions that minimize CO 2 emissions prefer the use of concrete instead of those that optimize the cost. On the other hand, when comparing the geometric variables, it is seen that most remain similar in both optimizations except for the distance between buttresses. When comparing with another algorithm, the results show a good performance in optimization using the black hole algorithm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction II)
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19 pages, 4537 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of Economic Impacts of Sustainable Vertical Extension Methods for Existing Underground Spaces
by Soo-yeon Seo, Byunghee Lee and Jongsung Won
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 975; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030975 - 29 Jan 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2733
Abstract
Without demolishing an entire existing building, it is possible to sustainably expand its underground spaces to enhance the building’s functionality. However, there have been a few relevant studies exploring this option, and they did not consider the financial feasibilities of underground vertical extension [...] Read more.
Without demolishing an entire existing building, it is possible to sustainably expand its underground spaces to enhance the building’s functionality. However, there have been a few relevant studies exploring this option, and they did not consider the financial feasibilities of underground vertical extension methods. Therefore, this paper analyzes the economic impacts of three sustainable vertical extension methods for existing underground spaces. The extension methods were the (1) bottom-up, (2) normal top-down, and (3) top-down with multi-post downward (MPD) methods. In order to analyze and compare the economic impacts of the underground vertical extension methods, 24 illustrative examples were generated in this paper. Construction costs of the three sustainable vertical extension methods for existing underground spaces are calculated and compared. Those are based on the quantity of used materials in the construction phase and dismantled materials in the demolition phase, as well as unit costs of each material. In addition, the structural stabilities of the examples are analyzed using MIDAS Gen 2017. As the results, the top-down method with MPD was the lowest sustainable method for vertically expanding underground spaces compared to other two methods under the same condition. Moreover, the higher the number of underground floors of existing buildings and the greater the number of extended basement floors, the more economically advantageous was the top-down method with MPD. Considering their structural stabilities and economic impacts of the extension methods help practitioners to select appropriate construction techniques and reduce costs, risks, and the amount of generated construction and demolition waste. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction II)
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