Applied Petrography of Construction Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Construction materials and applications constitute part of our daily life for hundreds of years. This Special Issue will explore the effect of petrography on construction materials and applications, such as concrete and road construction. More specifically, the effect of different types of aggregate materials (natural or recycled) on the quality of produced concrete will be examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the replacement of natural aggregate rocks with recycled materials such as industrial and agricultural wastes. Moreover, this Special Issue encourages attempts to explain failures in concrete by petrographical means. Aggregates (natural rocks as well as recycled materials) constitute main components of construction applications such as cement, mortar, concrete, bricks, and tiles. The quality of these applications (strength, durability, insulation, failure) depends on the characteristics of the used aggregates and more specifically depending on their chemical composition (bulk and micro), geochemistry, crystalline and non-crystalline attributes, mineralogy, size, shape, distribution, and textural characteristics. Several analytical methods such as optical microscopy, SEM, diffraction methods, XRF, EPMA, ICP-MS, FTIR, Raman, TEM, and tomography are used in order to analyze in detail the petrographic features of each construction material. A supplementary aim of this issue presents the development of eco-friendly constructions when simultaneously these constructions may be used as energy storage reservoirs (e.g., CO₂ storage in concrete), thus enhancing life cycle sustainability.

Dr. Nikolaos Koukouzas
Dr. Petros Petrounias
Dr. Panagiota P. Giannakopoulou
Guest Editors

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