Welcome to the first issue of 2014, with which we enter our seventh year of publication. We plan to publish four issues during 2014, with the intention to present 90 pages of content in each issue.
In this first issue, we are publishing a total of 8 papers that cover a wide spectrum of topics within sustainability, ranging from assessing the sustainability of construction materials and large public infrastructures, to alternative fuels and improved performance of diesel engines.
We start with research surrounding sustainable construction and begin with a paper by Haavaldsen et al. which provides a list of common sustainability assessment tools and identifies whether these tools consider all three pillars of sustainability, and furthermore, whether they are suitable for operational, tactical, or strategic planning in the context of large public infrastructure investment. This is followed by a paper from Zygomalas and Baniotopoulos, which presents new environmental data for cold-formed hollow steel sections; one of the most commonly used types of structural steel members. We continue with a paper by Tripura and Sharma, who discuss the bond characteristics of plain and noded bamboo splints embedded in cement stabilized rammed earth blocks.
The second part of this issue is composed of five papers addressing sustainable diesel engines. The first is a paper by Hazar and Temizer that explores the effects of methanol-organometallic MnO2 diesel fuels on engine performance. This continues with a paper by Yaliwal et al. which discusses the production and use of bioethanol fuels derived using Calliandra calothyrsus. This part then concludes with three papers addressing the performance of diesel engines using oil methyl esters. The first is a paper by Banapurmath et al. exploring various parameters affecting the combustion of compressed natural gas blended with Honge oil methyl esters in a dual-fuel engine. The second by Wategave et al. investigates suitability of different oil methyl esters such as cotton seed, Honne, and Honge within a four stroke, single cylinder compression ignition engine. The third by Suresh et al. looks at cotton seed oil methyl ester in a four stroke, single cylinder variable compression ratio diesel engine.
Finally, we would like to remind our readers about the upcoming special issue on ‘Design for Sustainable Behaviour’. A call for papers with a new submission deadline is included in this issue.
Shahin Rahimifard and Leila Sheldrick