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Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials
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Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 15765

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Antonio Caggiano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genova, 16145 Genova, Italy
Interests: sustainability in construction and building materials; recycling; smart materials; smart buildings; energy-saving; green buildings; eco-friendly materials; nearly zero-energy buildings; energy efficiency; energy storage; phase change materials; renewable energy resources; zero CO2 emissions; CO2 storage in materials; modeling; multiscale; multiphysics; micro- and meso-scale
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Deepankar Kumar Ashish

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Civil Engineering Department, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Maharaja Agrasen University, Baddi, India
Interests: sustainable concrete; sustainable construction materials; self-compacting concrete; environmental chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The “Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials” Special Issue is aimed at collecting the current state of the art and novel achievements on relevant topics that deal with the field of both sustainability and energy-saving in construction and building materials. Thus, it will collect original manuscripts on current advances from physical, chemical, biological, life-cycle assessment, engineering, and materials science perspectives and research results related to sustainable, carbon-neutral, environmental-friendly, and energy-neutral topics on CBMs.

With this collection, Prof. Antonio Caggiano and Prof. Deepankar Kumar Ashish have the ambition to hugely stimulate and spread the latest knowledge on Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials. The SI will be a recipe for new ideas on the aforementioned topics for young investigators as well as leading experts in the field of materials science and engineering.

The Special Issue is also sponsoring the F-EIR Conference 2021—Environment Concerns and its Remediation, to be held on October 18–22, 2021, Chandigarh, India, https://ecr21.org/. Works and scientific contributions presented in this event will also be considered as potential manuscripts for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Caggiano
Prof. Dr. Deepankar Kumar Ashishs
Guest Editors

Conference Information

Guest Editors will hold a meeting online on October 18–22, 2021, Chandigarh, India, on the topic of this Special Issue “Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials”. Please see details:
F-EIR Conference – Environment Concerns and its Remediation 
Welcome more researchers to join us!

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

  • alternative binders
  • bio-based cementitious materials
  • CO2 uptake and cleaning
  • CO2 storage
  • eco-friendly solutions
  • energy and buildings
  • energy harvesting
  • energy storage
  • energy transformations
  • European Green Deal
  • functional nanomaterials
  • heating and cooling
  • intelligent materials and buildings
  • life-cycle assessment
  • multiscale and multiphysics
  • natural composites
  • phase change materials
  • piezoelectric materials
  • recycling/reusability
  • renewable energy resources
  • reuse of industrial wastes and by-products
  • self-healing materials
  • smart materials
  • sustainable binders
  • thermal comfort
  • zero CO2 emissions
 

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 2472 KiB  
Article
A New Approach to the Viable Ranking of Zero-Carbon Construction Materials with Generalized Fuzzy Information
by Raghunathan Krishankumar, Arunodaya Raj Mishra, Fausto Cavallaro, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Jurgita Antuchevičienė and Kattur Soundarapandian Ravichandran
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7691; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137691 - 23 Jun 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1500
Abstract
This paper aims to put forward an integrated decision approach, with generalized fuzzy information for the viable selection of zero- and low-carbon materials for construction. In countries such as India, the construction sector accounts for high pollution levels and high carbon emissions. To [...] Read more.
This paper aims to put forward an integrated decision approach, with generalized fuzzy information for the viable selection of zero- and low-carbon materials for construction. In countries such as India, the construction sector accounts for high pollution levels and high carbon emissions. To restore sustainability and eco-friendliness, the adoption of low-carbon materials for construction is essential and, owing to the multiple attributes associated with the selection, the problem is viewed as a multi-criteria decision-making problem. Earlier studies on material selection have faced certain issues, such as the following: (i) the modeling of uncertainty is an ordeal task; (ii) the flexibility given to experts during preference elicitation is lacking; (iii) the interactions among the criteria are not well captured; and (iv) a consideration of the criteria type is crucial for ranking. To alleviate these issues, the primary objective of this paper was to develop an integrated framework, with decision approaches for material selection in the construction sector that promote sustainability. To this end, generalized fuzzy information (GFI) was adopted as the preference style as it is both flexible and has the ability to model uncertainty from the following three dimensions: membership, non-membership, and hesitancy grades. Furthermore, the CRITIC approach was extended to the GFI context for calculating criteria weights objectively, by effectively capturing criteria interactions. Furthermore, the COPRAS technique was put forward with the GFI rating for ranking zero- and low-carbon construction materials, based on diverse attributes. The usefulness of the framework was demonstrated via a case example from India and the results showed that the design cost, the financial risk, safety, water pollution, and land contamination were the top five criteria, with blended cement, mud bricks, and bamboo as the top three material alternatives for zero- and low-carbon construction. Finally, a sensitivity analysis and a comparison with other methods revealed the theoretical positives of this framework’s robustness and consistency–but it also revealed some limitations of the proposed framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials)
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21 pages, 7197 KiB  
Article
Inward and Outward Opening Properties of One-Sided Windcatchers: Experimental and Analytical Evaluation
by Mady A. A. Mohamed and Mohamed F. El-Amin
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4048; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074048 - 29 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1631
Abstract
Vernacular measures, such as courtyard, wind catcher “Malqaf”, wooden lattice “Mashrabia”, and lantern—which can help buildings to depend on natural energy from the sun and the wind—have started to be abandoned in the last decades. However, wind pressure and stack effects are becoming [...] Read more.
Vernacular measures, such as courtyard, wind catcher “Malqaf”, wooden lattice “Mashrabia”, and lantern—which can help buildings to depend on natural energy from the sun and the wind—have started to be abandoned in the last decades. However, wind pressure and stack effects are becoming more popular in modern buildings design and the primary method in most domestic buildings to achieve the desired cross ventilation and minimize the air temperature to reach the required cooling loads. This paper aims to revive one of the vernacular measures “the windcatcher”, quantifying the effectiveness of the inward/outward opening properties on the air temperature and airflow inside the buildings. Analytical literature review, context analysis, and numerical simulations are performed. The computer fluid dynamics (CFD) is utilized to simulate both the temperature distribution and the flow field within the windcatcher model. Simulations are carried out in the fluent environment, which uses the control volume method for solving the conservation law. The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and energy equation with the realizable k-ϵ turbulent model are employed. The research uses a parametric analysis to test different scenarios of windcatcher designs in terms of dimensions, proportions, and opening ratios. The results of this study confirm that windcatcher has a significant effect in lowering the air temperature inside the different floors. However, it is recommended to use a wind-catcher for not more than two floors, increase the area of the outward opening to 200% relative to the inward opening and apply side opening in the upper floors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials)
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13 pages, 1421 KiB  
Article
Energy-Efficient Building Design for a Tropical Climate: A Field Study on the Caribbean Island Curaçao
by Richenel Bulbaai and Johannes I. M. Halman
Sustainability 2021, 13(23), 13274; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313274 - 30 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6848
Abstract
Based on an extensive literature review on passive building designs for tropical climates, seven energy-efficient building design principles for tropical climate areas were deduced. These are: 1. To orientate a building design in such a direction that it protects from excessive solar radiation; [...] Read more.
Based on an extensive literature review on passive building designs for tropical climates, seven energy-efficient building design principles for tropical climate areas were deduced. These are: 1. To orientate a building design in such a direction that it protects from excessive solar radiation; 2. To accommodate for indoor natural ventilation; 3. That it makes maximal use of indirect instead of direct natural light; 4, That it reduces the amount of heat transmission through the roof as much as possible by natural ventilation between roof and ceiling and by lowering the roof surface temperature; 5. By preventing the use of high thermal mass materials; 6. By reducing through the exterior walls as much as possible heat transmission by e.g., preventing direct sunlight on the external walls and applying reflective paints on the external walls and; 7. By creating outdoor and transition spaces such as balconies, terraces atriums and corridors. The insights from the literature review were used as input to conduct a field study to evaluate the practice of applying passive building design principles. To this end, for 626 buildings on the Caribbean island Curaçao, it was investigated to what extent the recommended passive design principles for tropical climates were actually applied. Based on the results of the field study, several recommendations are made to improve the practice of applying passive building principles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials)
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12 pages, 4252 KiB  
Article
Stability Relevant Properties of an SiO2 Aerogel-Based Rendering and Its Application on Buildings
by Thomas Stahl, Karim Ghazi Wakili and Ernst Heiduk
Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10035; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810035 - 08 Sep 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1483
Abstract
Aerogel-based renderings and plasters have been spreading throughout Europe for nearly a decade. Several national and EU-funded projects have addressed this interesting building product, both at research level within academia and at application level within R&D of renowned industrial enterprises. At present, a [...] Read more.
Aerogel-based renderings and plasters have been spreading throughout Europe for nearly a decade. Several national and EU-funded projects have addressed this interesting building product, both at research level within academia and at application level within R&D of renowned industrial enterprises. At present, a number of investigations into the hygro-thermal, chemical and application properties of a commercially successful aerogel-based rendering and its main ingredient, SiO2 aerogel granules, have been undertaken. Immersion in water showed that even under harsh circumstances water does not enter the aerogel granules, but rather accumulates in the porous phase surrounding the granules. A further immersion in calcium hydroxide at different temperatures did not affect the aerogel granule either, which indicates the robustness of the granules with respect to their exposure to moisture and chemical deterioration emerging from the construction materials the rendering is applied on. An executed application to a historic building with a structured finish, and without any reinforcement mesh, showed the advantage of a versatile applicability of this rendering when the external appearance and visible details of a façade must be kept unchanged. The investigation is rounded off by an infrared picture taken on a cold day showing the thermal influence of the aerogel-based rendering, and its effectiveness for reducing heat loss in buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials)
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14 pages, 2385 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Campus: The Experience of the University of Lisbon at IST
by João Gomes Ferreira, Mário de Matos, Hugo Silva, Afonso Franca and Pedro Duarte
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 8050; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13148050 - 19 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2299
Abstract
This paper addresses the research problem of determining if relevant energy and water savings may be obtained in university campuses without significant investments, based mainly on “surgical” technical and organizational measures. With the creation of the “Sustainable Campus” project, in 2011, IST has [...] Read more.
This paper addresses the research problem of determining if relevant energy and water savings may be obtained in university campuses without significant investments, based mainly on “surgical” technical and organizational measures. With the creation of the “Sustainable Campus” project, in 2011, IST has been implementing a sustainability policy. A resource management policy has been accompanied by a permanent project team, which proposes the implementation of technical measures. This activity is performed in articulation with the operational management through integrated actions in a collective effort to reduce consumption. Without significant investments, the energy-saving measures implemented have consistently achieved a value of more than 20% in energy consumption when compared to the average annual consumption values of the past decade. Additionally, in 2018, water consumption was 58% lower than the reference baseline value of 2011. In 2018, specific projects were implemented in the area of sustainable mobility, with a focus on smooth mobility and sharing. This paper presents the “Sustainable Campus” project, its operational lines, and the results achieved in energy and water consumption and sustainable mobility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Energy-Saving in Construction and Building Materials)
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