Special sessions

 Although the SMS Conference will cover the broad range of themes in RILEM activities (see conference scope and topics), special sessions will be organised on the topics listed below. Potentiel authors of papers in these sessions can contact the corresponding session chairs for further details. Abstract and paper submission is to be done on the website using the regular submission form. Template for abstracts and papers are available here.

Materials for energy storage (Sensible-Heat, Latent-Heat, and Thermochemical)

Session Chairs and contact: Prof. Jorge S. Dolado (j.dolado@ehu.eus), Prof. Antonio Caggiano (Antonio.Caggiano@unige.it)

 Energy consumption in heating and cooling existing buildings contributes to a significant 40% of Europe's energy demand. To combat this, energy efficiency is of key importance. In this context, the potential of storing thermal energy in construction and building materials, using solar and environmental heat/cooling, can help regulate daily temperature fluctuations and dramatically reduce energy consumption.

The primary goal of this special session is to create a platform for sharing recent developments, the current state of the art, and practical recommendations and guidelines on the topic of "Materials for Energy Storage (Sensible-Heat, Latent-Heat, and Thermochemical)."

Key Thermal Energy Storage (TES) phenomena in Construction and Building Materials (CBM) include:

• Sensible Heat Storage (SHS): dealing with the material and massive heat capacity and temperature fluctuations during heating and cooling,
• Latent-Heat Storage (LHS): involving phase changes, such as solid-liquid transitions, often using Phase Change Materials (PCMs),
• Thermo-Chemical Storage (TCS): exploiting thermal energy storage through chemical potentials.

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic "Sensible-Heat, Latent-Heat and Thermochemical Energy storage materials"

Characterisation and modelling on small scales

Session Chairs and contact: Dr. Amine Bouibes (bouibes@insa-toulouse.fr), Prof. Laurie Lacarriere (lacarri@insa-toulouse.fr)

Advanced characterization and modeling techniques at the small scales have emerged in materials science as a promising field of investigation. Their applications in the civil engineering field have notably enhanced our understanding of the nano- and micro-structure of cement and related building materials, facilitating a fundamental connection between our comprehension of elementary mechanisms and the behaviors observed at the macroscopic scale.

This special session focuses on the recent progress in understanding cement and related building materials at small scales. Both experimental researchs and theoretical modeling, utilizing atomistic simulations (first principal methods, molecular dynamics, coarse grained models, etc.) are welcome. Collaborative works and innovative atomistic simulation methods that bridge the gap between the nano-scale and micro/macro-scale are particularly encouraged.

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic "Small Scales".

Non-destructive inspection of concrete materials and structures

Session Chair and contact: Prof. Dimitrios Aggelis (Dimitrios.Aggelis@vub.be)

Proper condition evaluation and maintenance are essential for structures. In addition, the increase of performance requirements for contemporary materials calls for better control of the health status. There is, therefore, an urgent necessity to upgrade the capabilities of monitoring of existing structures aiming at prolonging their safe operational life in order to increase the level of safety as well as decrease the economic burden of extensive repair or new construction. Quantitative assurance of structures’ integrity is a crucial issue to realize sustainable infrastructure all over the world. In this respect, non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques can be applied in-situ, while they are also of paramount importance in laboratory conditions.

The present session invites contributions from all fields of NDT that are used in-situ and/or are being developed in laboratory for evaluation of the damage condition, repair effectiveness as well as characterization and development of innovative materials..

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic  "Monitoring and NDT".

Data-driven concrete science (AI for concrete material and civil infrastructures)

Session Chair and contact: Prof. Sandra Barbosa Nunes (S.C.BarbosaNunes@tudelft.nl) and Prof. Moncef Nehdi (nehdim@mcmaster.ca)

Data science is igniting a revolution in the discovery and innovation of various material systems, garnering an enormous potential to transform cement-based materials' research, design, and specifications. Given the rapid incorporation of machine learning in concrete research in recent years, it is crucial to explore the capabilities and limitations of the multitude of emerging methods and establish the most effective practices in this evolving area.

This special session focuses on machine learning (and other data-driven approaches) along with their applications in concrete materials and civil infrastructure, which include materials characterization, concrete mixture design, prediction of fresh and mechanical properties, durability and service life, and structural health monitoring. Studies based on data compiled from the literature, experimental (laboratory and/or field) data, and synthetic data are welcome. Examples of good practices in terms of data management and data sharing are particularly encouraged.

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic  "Data-driven concrete science (AI for concrete material and civil infrastructures)"

Corrosion of engineering materials - Session for young scientists

Session Chair and contact: Dr. Meeke van Ede (mvanede@ethz.ch), Dr. Lucas Michel (michellu@ethz.ch)

This session is organized by the RILEM Young Scientists – Corrosion Group (RYS-CG), which aims to build a community of young researchers in the field of corrosion of building materials and to act as a stepping stone into the RILEM community. Corrosion is one of the main causes of early degradation of engineering structures. The study of corrosion of building materials, such as reinforced concrete, is essential in the preservation of existing structures and the development of more durable materials.

The main goal of this session is to connect young scientists in the field of corrosion and the durability of engineering materials. This session will give room for open-minded discussions on the state of the art, new developments, as well as on practical details in the experimental, numerical, and theoretical study of corrosion and durability of materials. Discussions with peers enable a relatively low-pressure environment to share challenges, ideas, and innovative approaches. Furthermore, it will help you to extend your knowledge and expand your network.

This session invites oral and poster contributions of young scientists (up to max. around 3 years after obtaining a PhD), on the topics of metallic corrosion and the durability of engineering materials related to metallic corrosion (carbonation of concrete, chloride ingress, etc.).

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic "Corrosion of engineering materials - Session for young scientists".

Earth-based materials and construction

Session Chairs and contact: Prof. Céline Perlot-Bascoules (celine.bascoules@univ-pau.fr), Prof. Antonin Fabbri (antonin.fabbri@entpe.fr)

This special session will focus on research activities on earthen constructions, and in particular, even if it is not entirely restrictive, around the following three main themes :

1. Performance of earth materials and structures, including mechanical, thermal, and hygrothermal properties, durability, and methods for on-site performance monitoring and measurement, 
2. Manufacturing processes, their control, and optimization. Early age behaviour of both ancient techniques such as rammed earth, cob, adobe, as well as more recent methods like poured earth and 3D printing,
3. Bio-stabilization of earth materials, including the assessment of bio-stabilisation methods and bio-stabilizers and their impacts on technical (mechanical, hygrothermal, durability) and environmental performance (carbon balance, life cycle analysis…).”

.Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic  "Bio-based materials and earth construction"

Bio-based materials and construction

Session Chair and contact: Prof. Camille Magniont (camille.magniont@iut-tarbes.fr)

Low-processed bio-based building materials are a way of valorizing local agricultural resources and co-products, whose availability, renewability and biogenic carbon storage potential are all environmental advantages. The use of these materials, as a substitute for conventional materials mainly formulated from non-renewable mineral or fossil raw materials, is therefore a priority lever for reducing the environmental impact of the building sector.

This special session covers the main areas of research into bio-based building materials, including:

- Assessment of their multiphysical performances (including mechanical, thermal, hygrothermal and acoustical properties), and in particular the development of experimental methods and characterization guidelines adapted to their specific characteristics.

- Formulation and optimization methods developed for plant-based insulation materials, lightweight concrete or earth, etc.

- Durability (aging mechanisms, accelerated aging protocols, curative and palliative treatments, etc.).

- Environmental properties (LCA, recycling, etc.).

Both experimental and numerical studies at different scales (microstructure, material, wall and building) are welcome.

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic  "Bio-based materials and earth construction".

Cultural Heritage

Session Chair and contact: Prof. Enrico Sassoni (enrico.sassoni2@unibo.it) and Prof. Corina Papanicolaou (kpapanic@upatras.gr)

Cultural heritage buildings and monuments (made of all types of masonry, stone, timber, earth and concrete) are threatened by natural and anthropogenic deterioration processes, as well as extreme events (e.g., earthquakes, fires, flooding). As a consequence of climate change, many of these deterioration processes are expected to be further worsened by increases in temperature, rainfall, sea level, CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere.

In the view of achieving more effective, compatible, durable and sustainable conservation of built cultural heritage, this special session aims at reviewing the state-of-the-art/practice and presenting the latest advancements on the following topics:

1)    Preservation of historic materials, including (but not limited to):

• deterioration mechanisms and predictive models
• materials and techniques for preventive conservation and repair
• advanced characterization of historic substrates and conservation materials
• life cycle assessment in heritage conservation

2)    Preservation of historic structures, including (but not limited to):

• strengthening materials and techniques (e.g., TRM/FRCM) with a special focus on sustainability
• non-destructive/moderately destructive test methods
• seismic vulnerability and computational models
• prevention and rehabilitation of damage due to fire, blast and other extreme events

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic "Historic buildings and cultural heritage"

Wood in structures

Contacts: Bo Kasal (bohumil.kasal@tu-bs.de), Juan Li (luan.li@wki.fraunhofer.de).

Wood has been used in construction since ancient times and wood is the only renewable structural material of significance. In recent years, significant attention has been given to materials from renewable resources (lignocellulosic (LC) materials) among which, wood is the most important in civil engineering applications.  We witness a renaissance of wood as a construction material. Using wood in construction, however, does not make a structure automatically sustainable.

This session will cover all aspects of application of wood in structures such as aging, time-dependent behavior,  material models and constitutive laws, compatibility with other structural materials such as steel, glass or concrete, use of wood composites in buildings, bonding techniques, interfaces between organic (LC) and inorganic materials, and similar.  Focus will be given to fundamental aspects of using wood from material science to structural viewpoints rather than case or LCA studies.

Bituminous materials

Contacts: Prof. Eshan Dave (eshan.dave@unh.edu), Prof. Gabriele Tebaldi (gtebaldi@ufl.edu).

The activities within the RILEM cluster F on Bituminous Materials and Polymers are focused developing state of the art techniques to enhance characterizations of bituminous and alternative binders used in asphalt paving mixtures, use of performance-based tests and modelling approaches to specify, design and maintain asphalt pavements, maximize recycling of highway and airfield pavements. The activities all contribute towards developing and implementing life cycling approaches with an emphasis to realize goals of circularity and lowering overall carbon footprint associated with pavement construction and operations.

This session will include a series of invited presentations from the members of the cluster F. The presentations will span across topics of asphalt binders and mixtures, airfield and highway pavement designs, life cycle assessment, and recycling.

Abstracts and papers on this topic should be submitted through the website submission page by selecting the conference topic "Bituminous materials".

Microorganisms-Building materials interactions

Session Chair and contact: Prof. Alexandra Bertron (bertron@insa-toulouse.fr)

Details to come.