Waiching Tang

• University of Newcastle Australia

Recycling fly ash (FA) and furnace bottom ash (FBA) help with reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving natural resources, and minimizing waste accumulation. However, research on recycling FBA is progressing more slowly compared to FA. This research aims to investigate the combined use of FBA as a replacement for both fine aggregate and cement...

Building performance prediction is a significant area of research, due to its potential to enhance the efficiency of building energy management systems. Its importance is particularly evident when such predictions are validated against field data. This paper presents an intelligent computational model combining Monte Carlo analysis, Energy Plus, an...

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a cutting-edge pozzolan composite material composed of a high proportion of discontinuous internal reinforcing fibers, a water-to-binder material ratio of no more than 0.25, and an optimal gradient of granular particles. Despite various potential concrete applications, UHPC is only utilized on occasion beca...

Ensuring thermal comfort in educational buildings is essential for improving students’ learning and productivity performance. This study aims to analyse the thermal comfort level of students and empirically define the preferred and neutral temperatures for higher education students in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Statistical analyses are carri...

Considering the increasingly complex and interconnected subway tunnels linking cities, this review argues that the overall reliability of tunnel engineering is crucial for protection when subjected to loads caused by major catastrophes, particularly earthquakes. Therefore, the key topic of this paper is the application of the resilience concept for...

The use of recycled coarse aggregates (RA) in concrete is a sustainable alternative to non-renewable natural aggregate (NA) to fabricate concrete products using in concrete structures. However, the adhered mortar on the surface of RA would considerably impact the qualities of concrete products. As a practical treatment procedure, mechanical screeni...

Phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted considerable attention as potential energy storage media for improving the energy storage densities of building envelopes. Therefore, researchers have committed to introducing PCMs into cementitious materials to develop structural–functional integrated thermal energy storage cementitious materials (TESCM...

In concrete production, the use of high-volume fly ash (FA) as the cement substitute became interesting to achieve more sustainable and eco-friendly construction materials. However, concrete produced using high volumes of FA as cement substitute suffers from various limitations such as low strength at early ages. Considering the engineering solutio...

This study proposes an effective approach for improving the energy performance of subway tunnels by using steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) segments to obtain shallow geothermal energy. Three-dimensional time-dependent thermohydraulic finite element analyses of the subway tunnel lining with reference to the existing Shenzhen subway tunnels wer...

Alkali-activated slag (AAS) binders-based composites are considered potential alternatives to conventional cement-based composites. However, the quasi-brittle mechanical behavior of AAS binders-based composites limits their widespread application. In this study, a graphene oxide-SiO2 (GO-SiO2) composite was produced to address this issue. The exper...

Solar energy is intermittent, resulting in a discrepancy between the solar energy supply and building energy demand. Salt hydrate phase change material (PCM) is a promising material for use as an energy storage medium, but it suffers from a high supercooling degree, low thermal conductivity, and insufficient photothermal conversion efficiency. In t...

This paper studied the effect of calcination temperatures (600–900 °C) on physical characteristics and microstructure changes of low-grade clay containing 14.6% kaolinite and 17.8% 2:1 clay mineral. The pozzolanic activity of calcined low-grade clay as a supplementary cementitious material was evaluated using strength activity index and relative st...

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is a unique material, which can significantly contribute to self-healing based on ongoing hydration. However, it is difficult to model and predict the self-healing performance of ECC. Although different machine learning (ML) algorithms have been utilized to predict several properties of concrete, the applicat...

Energy consumption to achieve thermal comfort in buildings is one of the significant challenges in the construction industry. Hence, applying thermal energy storage (TES) systems, such as phase change material (PCM), is increasingly being considered as a promising solution. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCM has a negative effect on the t...

Different formulations for 3D printable cementitious composites have been developed for extrusion-based printing. However, there is a lack of configuration guides for actual printing operations, which integrate one printable material and one printing system closely. Three testing methods for configuration determination were proposed and tested with...

It has been challenging for designers to identify the appropriate design parameters that would reduce building energy consumption while achieving thermal comfort for building occupants. This study aims to determine the most important architectural building design parameters (ABDPs) that can increase thermal comfort and reduce energy use in educatio...

Friction dampers are widely used in structural vibration control to mitigate seismic risks. In literatures, many different friction damper designs have been proposed, tested and implemented, but most studies concerned the performance of newly fabricated dampers and very few considered their long-term behavior. Since most friction surfaces are made...

Red mud (RM) is a hazardous waste material produced during the alkaline leaching of bauxite in the Bayer process. Its high alkalinity combined with large production rates poses serious environmental problems. In recent years, researchers have explored the potential use of RM as a cementitious binder in concrete mixes. This chapter intends to highli...

Energy piles are a new renewable energy technology that is suitable for use as a heat exchanger in ground source heat pump systems. In this study, hollow steel balls macro-encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) were used for the development of concrete pile, the resulting pile is referred to as the “PCM energy pile.” A laboratory-scale PCM ener...

Silty sand slopes are prone to damage due to seepage or rainfall. A partial reinforcement method using short polypropylene fiber and sand mixtures was proposed to protect silty sand slopes from seepage flow failure. The effects and the reinforcement mechanism were explored. First, triaxial tests were performed on sand samples reinforced with fiber...

In the last decade, latent heat storage materials such as phase change materials (PCMs) have been increasingly seen as a promising solution in thermal energy storage (TES) systems to reduce heating and cooling energy demand in buildings. However, there are still some significant challenges to integrate PCM into building components. The main challen...

Urban renewal projects involve redevelopments of under-utilised old buildings and revitalisation of precious land resources. Due to architectural and social-economic reasons, historical façades are sometimes retained, and new constructions are built behind them. This allows the historical façade, typically the street elevation, to remain while new...

The authors regret that Figures 6 and 11b in [...]

Rebar corrosion has been recognized as a major durability issue of the reinforced concrete (RC) structures over recent decades, prompting the necessity to study the corrosion behavior of steel in concrete during the service life. To estimate service life of RC structure, the corrosion of reinforcing steel is generally accelerated by means of the im...

The present work is focused on the improvement of direct current (DC) accelerated corrosion method for accurate partial corrosion process on full-scale reinforced concrete (RC) and the impact of one of its controlled parameters, the applied voltage, on the current efficiency and electrode reactions. The results showed that an electrolyte circulatio...

Nowadays, many nanomaterials such as graphene oxide (GO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), nano silica (NS) etc. have been introduced to improve the microstructures and performances of cement-based materials (CBM). Compared with other nanomaterials, NS has attracted much attention because of its pozzolanic reaction with calcium hydroxide (CH) to form calci...

Using environmentally friendly, durable, and effective measures to reinforce clay soil are important in geotechnical engineering. This study investigated the mechanical performance of clay soil reinforced with carbon fibers (CF). Unconfined compressive strength tests were performed on soil samples under their optimum water content. The effects of C...

Many industrial solid wastes are rich in silica (SiO2) which can be used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) to replace part of Portland cement. Existing studies mainly focus on the impact of solid waste on tricalcium silicate (C3S) hydration. Since tricalcium aluminate (C3A) is the most reactive component of the Portland cement, it is of...

Tricalcium aluminate (C3A) is the most reactive component of the Portland cement and its hydration has an important impact on the workability and early strength of concrete. Recently, nanomaterials such as nano-silica (nano-SiO2) have attracted much attention in cement-based materials because of its pozzolanic reactivity and the pore-filling effect...

Phase change materials (PCMs) have received extensive attention due to their high latent heat storage density and isothermal behavior during heat charging and discharging processes. The application of PCMs in buildings would match energy supply and demand by using solar energy effectively, thereby reducing building energy consumption. In this study...

This study evaluates the efficiency of phase change materials (PCMs) in improvements in thermal performance and thermal comfort of a residential building. The heat transfer of concrete containing PCM, which has been experimentally examined, was numerically modeled and validated in this study. PCMs with melting temperatures ranging from 19-29°C and...

To reduce the thermal response and improve the heat storage capacity of energy piles, a phase change (PC) energy pile was proposed. This innovative PC pile is made of concrete containing macro-encapsulated PCM hollow steel balls (HSB) as coarse aggregates. A numerical model was developed to simulate the thermo-mechanical behaviors of the PC pile un...

Over the last few years, phase change materials (PCMs) have been proved capable to improve the thermal performance of cement-based materials. However, the issues of inorganic PCM leakage and corrosion have led to apprehension. The present study aims to investigate the feasibility of using a dual-layer coating system to improve leakage and corrosion...

In this study, the interaction mechanism between two types of blast furnace slags (named S1 and S2) with distinct chemical compositions and activators with various alkali and silicate concentrations were investigated. Based on the calorimetric results, it was found that the mixing sequence of alkali silicate solutions greatly changed the hydration...

Saturated silty sand is more likely to cause landslide due to static liquefaction behavior. In this study, easily dispersible short synthetic carbon fibers (CF), with larger aspect ratio and smaller diameter (7 μm) compared with conventional polypropylene fibers, were used to improve the liquefaction resistance behavior of silty sand. A series of t...

In this study, hydrocalumite-like Ca2Al-NO3− layered double hydroxides (Ca-Al LDHs) with different microstructures were synthesized. The crystalline properties, structure composition, morphology and particle size distribution of the Ca-Al LDH (CAL) samples were illustrated. To obtain the chloride uptake performances of CAL, the influences of contac...

Building energy consumption is influenced evidently by solar radiation. To achieve a stable indoor temperature by minimizing the heat fluctuations resulted from solar radiation, latent heat thermal energy storage systems with phase change materials (PCMs) in building envelope have been studied. Though inorganic PCMs have promising potential applica...

Green concrete is defined as concrete that uses waste material as at least one of its components, or has a production process that does not lead to environmental destruction, or has a high performance and life cycle sustainability [...]

One of the growing concerns in the construction industry is energy consumption and energy efficiency in residential buildings. Moreover, management of non-degradable solid glass wastes is becoming a critical issue worldwide. Accordingly, incorporation of recycled expanded glass aggregates (EGA) as a substitution for natural fine aggregate in cement...

The rapid expansion of metropolitan areas as well as population growth drive more and more construction projects. Residential, commercial and infrastructure projects produce a considerable amount of excavated soil each year. The traditional trend in handling this material consists of transporting the excess to landfills. However, in the past, spoil...

In this paper, the effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on properties of alkali activated slag (AAS), including rheology, strength and shrinkage were studied and the resulting mechanisms were investigated by microstructure tests and heat of hydration test. In the presence of CNTs, the viscosity of AAS-CNTs composites paste was dramatically increased....

This paper investigates the effect of recycled glass powder (RGP) on flowing properties of self-compacting mortars (SCMs) containing different ratios of fillers and superplasticizer dosages. Fly ash (FA), nano-silica (NS), micro-silica (MS), metakaolin (MK) and rice husk ash (RHA) are used as fillers and their synergistic effect with RFP is studied...

In the last decade there has been a massive growth for development of concrete infrastructures all around the world. Take into account environmental concerns, concrete technology should direct efforts toward assuring development and fabrication of sustainable and resilient concrete. For this purpose, incorporation of recycled concrete aggregate in...

Red mud is a hazardous waste material produced during alkaline leaching of bauxite in the Bayer process. This study proposed the use of red mud to replace fly ash in self-compacting concrete (SCC) and the influences of red mud on fresh and hardened properties, and durability performances of SCC were studied. The fresh concrete results show that red...

The present study aims to investigate the impact of thermal energy storage aggregate (TESA) and nano-titanium (NT) on properties of structural concrete. TESA was made of scoria encapsulated with phase change materials (PCMs). Coarse aggregates were replaced by TESA at 100% by volume of aggregate and NT was added at 5% by weight of cement. Compressi...

Solar thermal energy can be stored in passive solar buildings using either sensible heat storage materials or latent heat storage materials. Structural-functional integrated building materials with integrated thermal energy storage can be developed by compositing phase change materials (PCMs) with building materials. In this study, high performance...

In this study, the effects of carbon fiber and nanosilica on properties of silty soil including physical, microstructural characteristics and shear resistance were investigated. Soil samples treated with different contents of carbon fiber and nanosilica were prepared and studied. The samples were tested by direct shear method under different normal...

In this study, a novel chemical method was developed for grafting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) onto the surface of carbon fibers (CF) using (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (KH550). The CNTs with carboxyl groups and oxidized CF (O-CF) were modified by KH550 before the grafting procedure. The CNTs were grafted onto the surface of CF through Si–O–Si bond f...

Although the inorganic salt hydrate phase change materials (PCMs) such as CaCl2·6H2O have promising potential for thermal energy storage in building application, the issue of supercooling has restricted their practical application. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) and SrCl2·6H2O as binary nucleation agents were used to modify CaCl2·6H2O and reduc...

Slope vegetation clearing for urban development purposes often leaves the slope prone to surface erosion prior to revegetation establishment. This study is in response to the requirement of immediate slope protection and revegetation. As no research in Australia exists on vegetation concrete technology, this paper analyses and presents the results...

Red mud is a waste product from the production of alumina, it currently has limited industrial use. This study proposed to use red mud to partially replace fly ash (12.5, 25 and 50% by weight) in self-compacting concrete (SCC) and the influence of red mud on the fresh and hardened properties and microstructural behaviour of SCC were studied. Slump-...

The increasing demand for environmental sustainability has prompted a growth in the production and implementation of energy efficient building materials. The use of phase change materials (PCMs) in buildings has proven to be an effective way of improving thermal regulation in buildings. However, the effectiveness of various PCMs has not yet been qu...

In this study, a structural lightweight concrete with function of indoor temperature control was developed by using thermal energy storage aggregates (TESA). TESA was made of porous structural lightweight aggregate (scoria) impregnated with liquid phase change material (PCM) and was coated with epoxy resins and mineral admixtures. TESA concrete mix...

The current rate of expansion of metropolitan areas requires the expansion of public transportation frameworks like metro, train, and tunnels. This expansion has also led to new residential and commercial buildings development. These developments have resulted in significant volumes of excavated, material and more will be produced. In this study, t...

In this study, the effects of graphene oxide (GO) on the microstructure of cement mortars were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric (TG), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Cement mortar samples with different proportions of GO (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08 wt % based on the weight of cement) were prepared. The tes...

Concrete is the most consumable building material in the world. Marine aggregates are the natural sand and gravels available in the sea or dredged from seabed. Contents of chloride, sulphate and shell in the marine aggregates can influence the properties of concrete and corresponding performance of the concrete structures. However, the limitations...

In this study, the effects of nano-CuO (NC) on engineering properties of fibre-reinforced mortars incorporating metakaolin (MK) were investigated. The effects of polypropylene fibre (PP) were also examined. A total of twenty-six mixtures were prepared. The experimental results were compared with numerical results obtained by adaptive neuro-fuzzy in...

The use of recycled concrete aggregates from different sources on structural concrete is a sustainable solution to minimize the extraction of natural mineral resources and the detrimental impacts of the concrete industry to the environment. The present study aimed to assess the impact of partial replacement of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA), steel...

The inorganic salt hydrate PCM, CaCl2·6H2O, has a promising potential for thermal energy storage. However, this salt hydrate has tremendous issues of supercooling (the supercooling degree was 25.5 °C as found in this research) which restricts its utilization in practical applications. The present study aimed to reduce the supercooling degree of CaC...

To analyze the effect of summer ventilation on the thermal performance and energy efficiency of buildings utilizing phase change materials (PCMs), this paper simulated the indoor temperature variation and energy saving performance of buildings constructed with PCM under different ventilation conditions from June to September. With EnergyPlus and de...

Over the last few years the application of thermal energy storage system incorporating phase change materials (PCMs) to foster productivity and efficiency of buildings energy has grown rapidly. In this study, a structural-functional integrated concrete was developed using macro-encapsulated PCM-lightweight aggregate (LWA) as partial replacement (25...

Cement based composite materials (CBCM) with superior mechanical strength and excellent durability are always desirable in practical applications. Although considerable research has been reported in the past decades about the use of Nano materials (NMs) for strength and durability enhancement of cement matrix, there is little information available...

In this paper, the properties of concrete containing zeolite and tuff as partial replacements of cement and sand were studied. The compressive strength, water absorption, chloride ion diffusion and resistance to acid environments of concretes made with zeolite at proportions of 10% and 15% of binder and tuff at ratios of 5%, 10% and 15% of fine agg...

h i g h l i g h t s Effect of nano-CuO in PP reinforced SCCs were assessed. Mechanical and durability properties were studied. Addition of PP resulted in substantial increase in flexural and tensile strength of the SCCs. The microstructure was investigated by SEM photos. Three SVM approaches were used to predict the compressive strength. a b s t r...

This paper reports an experimental investigation on the mechanical and durability properties of concrete using dredged marine sand (DMS). Two sources of DMS were used and the influence of water treatment prior to mixing concrete was studied. Compressive strength, tensile strength and elastic modulus of concrete with DMS were evaluated and compared...

One of the most efficient and environmentally friendly methods for preventing a landslide on a slope is to vegetate it. Vegetation-pervious concretes have a promising potential for soil protection. In this study, the vegetation-pervious concrete with low alkalinity was developed and studied. Combined with a grid beam structure system, the stability...

Phase change materials (PCMs) have great potential for applications in energy efficient buildings. In this study, an innovative method of macro-encapsulation of PCM using hollow steel balls (HSB) was developed and the thermal and mechanical performance of PCM-HSB concrete was examined. The macro-encapsulation system (PCM-HSB) was attached with a me...

The authors wish to make the following correction to this paper [1].[...].

Self-compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC) is a promising construction material for building applications, but most SCLCs today are made with river sand (RS). There is an increasing demand for environmental protection, as well as materials with a high strength/density ratio. The manufactured sand (MS) and lightweight sand (LS) as fine aggregates i...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have excellent mechanical properties and can be used to reinforce cement-based materials. On the other hand, the reaction product of carbonation with hydroxides in hydrated cement paste can reduce the porosity of cement-based materials. In this study, a novel method to improve the strength of cement paste was developed throu...

This paper mainly reports an experimental investigation on the residual mechanical and fracture properties of polystyrene aggregate concrete (PAC) after exposure to high temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius. The fracture properties namely, the critical stress intensity factor (K-IC(S)), the critical crack tip opening displacement (CTODC) for the...

The application of thermal energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) for energy efficiency of buildings grew rapidly in the last few years. In this research, octadecane paraffin was served as a PCM, and a structural concrete with the function of indoor temperature control was developed by using a macro-encapsulated PCM hollow steel ball (HS...

The utilisation of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) in Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) has the potential to reduce both the environmental impact and financial cost associated with this increasingly popular concrete type. However, to date limited research exists exploring the use of coarse RCA in SCC. The work presented in this paper seeks to build...

During the last decade, self-healing of concrete has attracted so much attention in the research community as a promising tool toward more durable and sustainable infrastructures. Although various self-healing approaches have been vastly studied, employment of different assessment methods in these studies has made it difficult to compare the effici...

In this research, structural-functional integrated cement-based materials were prepared by employing cement paste and a microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) manufactured using urea-formaldehyde resin as the shell and paraffin as the core material. The encapsulation ratio of the MPCM could reach up to 91.21 wt%. Thermal energy storage ceme...

Construction dust may lead to Silicosis, a disabling respiratory disease which severely threatens the life of construction workers. Therefore, it is important to predict and determine the safety area of dust generated by the construction process and the corresponding protective measures that must be adopted. In this paper, based on real site data,...

Construction workers are vulnerable to heat stress, and a number of heat-related injuries and deaths have been reported. This study thus introduces a phase change material (PCM) based cooling garment designed for construction workers. The PCM cooling garment will be effective in reducing the workers body temperature and can extend their maximum tol...

While the Three George Dam might help in utilizing hydraulic power, historic weather data showed that the Three George Dam has a serious impact on the relative humidity for cities in the reservoir area. We conclude that the cooling energy consumption in Chongqing may have increased about 31 per cent, provided that the Three George Dam had not been...

In this paper, three recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) with different 24-h water absorptions (5.67, 3.12, and 1.98 wt%) were used to produce recycled coarse aggregate concretes (RCACs). Different water absorption rates were obtained by modifying the surface of RCAs with low and high concentration of alkaline organosilicone modifier that is stable i...