granite presents values significantly higher after the cycles of freeze-thaw, which also leads to the increased on the absorption by immersion and capillary absorption coefficient.

The transfer of energy (in the form of heat) between the building and its surroundings affects its thermal performance. When a given building system is thermally inefficient it will require that the HVAC equipment will be in permanent activity, increasing the underlying energy costs. This work evaluates the influence of using a TiO 2-coated plastering mortar in the thermal performance of a building wall model. The TiO 2 aqueous solution was sprayed onto the mortar surface, in its fresh state, by using an atmospheric air compressor at a distance of about 20 cm, during 30 s and the speed of the aqueous solution jet set at 100 mL/min, thus leading to a coverage rate of about 12 mg/cm 2 .For the first time, as far as the authors' knowledge, this research work allowed to test the previously speculated hypothesis and verify its feasibility in the building industry context. It has been observed that the application of a TiO 2-coated mortar worsens the thermal behaviour of the wall model, in 10% and 13% for the conduction thermal resistance and for thermal transmission coefficient, respectively. Furthermore, the deposition of TiO 2 nanoparticles on the exterior wall surface enhances the water evaporation rate in 136%.

The energy or fuel consumption of the millions of vehicles that daily operate in road pavements has a significant economic and environmental impact on the use phase of road infrastructures regarding their life cycle analysis. Therefore, new solutions should be studied to reduce the vehicles energy consumption, namely due to the tire-pavement interaction, and contribute towards the sustainable development. This study aims at estimating the energy consumption due to the rolling resistance of tires moving over pavements with distinct surface characteristics. Thus, different types of asphalt mixtures were used in the surface course to determine the main parameters influencing the energy consumption. A laboratory scale prototype was developed explicitly for this evaluation. Data mining techniques were used to analyze the experimental results due to the complex correlation between the data collected during the tests, providing meaningful results. In particular, the artificial neural network allowed to obtain models with excellent capacity to estimate energy consumption. A sensitive analysis was carried out with a five input parameter model, which showed that the main parameters controlling the energy consumption are the vehicle speed and the mean texture depth.

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h i g h l i g h t sSingle surface dressings increased more the macrotexture of concrete pavements. Soft bitumen performed better than emulsions when pulling-off surface dressings. Vialit mechanical adhesion was similar for conventional and modified emulsions. Double surface dressings covered with diluted emulsion wear less in the prototype. Surface dressings are potential surface treatment alternatives for concrete pavements.