Innovative Materials and Technologies for Construction and Restoration

The International Conference on Innovative Materials and Technologies for Construction and Restoration, held at the University of Lecce, Italy, between June 6 and June 9 2004 was co-chaired, by Professors Antonio La Tegola (University of Lecce), and Antonio Nanni (Universities of Naples and Missouri—Rolla). After the Conference Prof. Nanni, as editor-in-chief of ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, kindly invited me to be the Guest Editor for a Special Issue of the journal containing extended and revised papers, selected among those presented at the Conference.

The recent and growing introduction of innovative materials and technologies in the civil engineering field has opened exciting new prospects, challenges, and opportunities for researchers worldwide. Material innovation may, for instance, result from the extension to this field of materials already widely used in aerospace and mechanical engineering, such as fiber-reinforced polymer composites, or from the growing call for sustainable solutions such as recycling and environment-friendly construction materials. Among the issues arising from the use of innovative materials are durability, compatibility and environmental impact. Also, analysis and design philosophies often need to be re-thought from elementary principles, developing, if the case,new concepts and measures of safety. Tackling these issues requires integrated, multidisciplinary efforts between material- and structure-oriented experts. Even more complex is the problem of preservation and strengthening of historical buildings, which involves additional challenges such as reversibility, minimal intrusion and the expectation of durability over a century time scale.

The aim of the conference was to provide an international forum for researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to exchange information and ideas on innovation in materials and technologies in the civil engineering field. The conference was conceived in three parts of focusing on: (i) Materials; (ii) Construction; and (iii) Restoration. The idea behind this format was to foster the interaction between experts working on civil engineering problems at different scales (material, system and full structural), as well as with different perspectives (structural engineers and restoration experts).

The Special Issue contains fourteen papers from all three areas (some being relevant to more than one area), all having passed the usual peer-review process before publication. Reflecting the trend of the papers presented at the conference, particular attention is devoted to the characterization and application of fiber-reinforced polymer composites for reinforcement or strengthening of structures.

It is hoped that the papers in this Special Issue will serve as a useful reference for research to follow.