The thermal performance of economical housing located in hot climates remains a pending subject, especially in emerging economies. A cellular concrete mixture was designed, considering its thermophysical properties, to apply the new material into building envelopes. The proposed materials have low density and thermal conductivity to be used as a nonstructural lightweight construction element. From the design stage, a series of wall systems based on cellular concrete was proposed. Whereas in the second phase, the materials were analyzed to obtain the potential energy savings using dynamic simulations. It is foreseen that the energy consumption in buildings located in these climates will continue to increase critically due to the temperature increase associated with climate change. The temperatures predicted mean vote (PMV), electric energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions were calculated for three IPCC scenarios. These results will help to identify the impact of climate change on the energy use of the houses built under these weather conditions. The results show that if the conventional concrete blocks continue to be used, the air conditioning energy requirements will increase to 49% for 2030 and 61% by 2050. The proposed cellular concrete could reduce energy consumption between 15% and 28%, and these saving rates would remain in the future. The results indicate that it is necessary to drive the adoption of lightweight materials, so the impact of energy use on climate change can be reduced.

A new micropolar peridynamic framework incorporating stress- and stretch-based failure criteria was developed for simulating concrete structures. A nonlocal micropolar peridynamic stress tensor was employed to solve plane stress problems; this approach inherently manages cracks and damage. A direct correspondence was established between the classical constitutive stress–strain tensor and the associated micropolar peridynamic stress tensor for linearly elastic materials. Moreover, in contrast to standard peridynamic models that treat the material horizon as a purely abstract parameter, this research defines the horizon based on Poisson’s ratio, material strength, and fracture toughness. In addition, a numerical matrix-based scheme was implemented to model concrete problems using a nonlinear explicit dynamic relaxation solver. To assess the model’s performance, concrete structures under plane stress were examined. The model’s results align closely with the crack paths and experimental data from physical testing and demonstrate mesh independence. The implementation of the model with stress and stretch failure criteria mitigates spurious boundary effects, ensuring spatial convergence.

There exists a great potential for application in soil mechanics with the use of mechanistic models such as the finite element model, and other non-local models, such as the peridynamic model, since the soil mass can be modelled as a group of particles that interact with each other. In this work, we determine the bearing capacity of deep foundations where stresses are transmitted to deep deposits, which generally present better characteristics in terms of compressibility and shear strength. One of the main elements are driven piles, which must be previously designed, made and tested before their final use. In this work, a comparison with different methods is presented. The finite element method and the peridynamic model are used. Because the effect of consolidation was not taken into account, in these examples, the assumption is made that the structures are cemented in inert soil. Likewise, it is assumed that the water table has no influence on the simulations. Failure envelopes were observed where bonds between particles present high gradients of deformation and fracture. Bearing capacities were estimated and compared with those obtained from the Terzaghi and Meyerhof methods.

A new micropolar peridynamic framework incorporating stress- and stretch-based failure criteria was developed for simulating concrete structures. The micropolar peridynamic stress tensor was postulated for plane stress problems, in which the material horizon was expressed as a function of Poisson’s ratio, the material strength, and the fracture toughness. A direct one-to-one correspondence was established between the classical constitutive stress–strain tensor and the associated micropolar peridynamic stress tensor for linearly elastic materials. In addition, a numerical matrix-based scheme was implemented to model concrete problems using an explicit nonlinear explicit dynamic relaxation solver. To assess the model’s performance, concrete structures under plane stress were examined and the results were compared with experimental data, showing good agreement with the model predictions.