Impact of Sustainable Materials and Material Composition on Structural Strength

Abstract

Changing to sustainable construction materials is one of the most far reaching changes in the practice of civil and structural engineering in the last twenty years which was motivated by the environmental requirements, resource limitations and changing performance demands. This paper explored how sustainable materials and material composition affect structural strength among the civil engineers, construction professionals, and material specialists in the infrastructure and construction industries in Pakistan. The quantitative approach was used. The respondents sampled were 200 chosen using purposive sampling criteria on the basis of engagement in material selection and structural design. The perceptions of sustainable material properties, material composition optimization practices, and structural strength results were measured in a structured questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale with additional technical performance indicators. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize profiles of respondents. Cronbachs alpha, Composite Reliability (CR), and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) were used to evaluate reliability and validity. Inter-variable correlations were studied using correlation analysis. The hypothesized relationships were tested using Structural Equation Modeling with SmartPLS 4.0. Sustainable materials showed a high level of positive direct impact on the structural strength (beta = 0.46, p <.001), and material composition shows the same high level of positive direct impact (beta = 0.43, p <.001). The structural model was found to explain 59.4% of the variance in structural strength (R-squared = 0.594). These results demonstrate that sustainable material use and optimization of material composition systematically are complementary and reinforcing directions towards structural strength realization, and have significant implications to sustainable construction practice in Pakistan.