Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames: A Case Study of Two Residential Buildings in Iran

Oladazimi, Amir; Mansour, Saeed; Hosseinijou, Seyed Abbas

doi:10.3390/buildings10030054

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Hence, we used GaBi for the environmental comparison of the two building frames. All the information regarding the LCA of the two construction frames, such as the bill of materials, different life cycle stages, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), and total pollution in various categories were assessed in the previous study by the authors [37]. Therefore, detailed descriptions related to the environmental aspect have been avoided in this section.…”

Section: Results Of Life Cycle Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The case study of this research is same as the research presented in the previous work of the authors [37]. In fact, this research is a rational continuation of the previous study where only the environmental aspect of sustainability was assessed for the two construction frames.…”

Section: Introducing Case Studymentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Although several studies aimed to compare such construction frames with respect to the environmental issues [3,6,14,15,35,36], the two other dimensions, i.e., economic and environmental, were almost neglected in many cases; therefore, our purpose is to fill this gap. The environmental issues of these two building frames have already been evaluated thoroughly in our previous study [37] using the LCA method and the results were shown in various impact factors. Hence, we have referred to the final results of our previous study for sensitivity analysis determinations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, this research is a rational continuation of the previous study where only the environmental aspect of sustainability was assessed for the two construction frames. A detailed introduction of the two cases was provided in the previous paper [37] and included detailed plans, a bill of materials, and other necessary data for the LCA. Hence, authors recommend readers to refer to that paper in order to obtain complete information about the two studied cases.…”

Section: Introducing Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainability Identification of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames with Respect to Triple Bottom Line

et al. 2021

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As one of the most prominent industries in developed and developing countries, the construction industry has had substantial impacts on different aspects of the environment, society, and economy. In recent years, sustainable construction has been introduced as an approach to evaluate the various construction phases based on environmental, economic, and social dimensions, also known as the triple bottom line (TBL). To conduct a sustainability analysis of the buildings in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, two conventional construction frames were selected, namely steel frame and concrete frame. In this research, three conventional approaches for the evaluation of the TBL, namely the life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (SLCA), were, respectively, used for the study of environmental, economic, and social impacts. The main results of the study are summarized as the following: Overall, based on the LCA results, the concrete frame led to almost 38% more environmental pollution than steel frame. In terms of the total prices of the buildings, considering their LCC and with respect to the present value (PV) method, the steel frame was almost 152,000 USD more expensive than the concrete frame. The quantified results of the social dimension by the SLCA method showed that concrete and steel buildings had a score of 0.199 and 0.189, respectively, which indicates that concrete had a slightly better social performance based on expert opinions. A multi-criteria assessment and sensitivity analysis of the results were conducted by a graphical tool, namely the mixing triangle, and showed that the overall preference of each alternative depends mainly on the importance weights given to each aspect of the assessment. However, one of the main findings of the research was that overall, giving a high importance weight to environmental dimension leads to sustainability preference of steel over concrete frame, while giving high importance weights to economic or social dimensions leads to sustainability preference of concrete over steel frame. Findings of the study are beneficial to decision-makers in the construction industry since they can decide on the best alternative among concrete and steel frames based on their strategies.

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Section: Results Of Life Cycle Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introducing Case Studymentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introducing Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainability Identification of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames with Respect to Triple Bottom Line

et al. 2021

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“…A comparison of two structural systems used for office buildings in the form of steel and reinforced concrete construction allows us to conclude that, in most cases, the more adverse environmental impact is related to reinforced concrete construction. LCA analysis of these two basic construction systems is presented in [19], taking into account such impact categories as global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication potential, human toxicity, resource depletion (water, minerals, and renewable resources), climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and ecotoxicity, allows concluding that reinforced concrete buildings have a much greater impact on the environment than steel buildings have. The total value of pollution associated with the construction of an office building with a reinforced concrete structure is 38% higher than the value associated with a similar building with a steel structure.…”

Section: Comparison Of Steel and Reinforced Concrete Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Steel Office Buildings

Broniewicz

2020

Energies

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Sustainable construction is an important part of sustainable development because of its contribution to the economy as well as the environmental and social impact of buildings on our lives. Steel is one of the most basic materials, both in the structures and for the finishes. It enables efficiency, durability, and recyclability, especially for office buildings. All these features of steel show its sustainable potential. Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the environment. They need to be able to make informed decisions about the impact of their actions. This publication is aimed at setting out key themes for the design and construction of sustainable buildings. Examples of office building environmental analyses are presented to illustrate how this is being achieved in steel construction.

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The application of life cycle assessment in buildings: challenges, and directions for future research

Fnais

Rezgui

Petri

et al. 2022

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose This paper reviews the state-of-the art research in life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to buildings. It focuses on current research trends, and elaborates on gaps and directions for future research. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted to identify current research and applications of LCA in buildings. The proposed review methodology includes (i) identifying recent authoritative research publications using established search engines, (ii) screening and retaining relevant publications, and (iii) extracting relevant LCA applications for buildings and analyzing their underpinning research. Subsequently, several research gaps and limitations were identified, which have informed our proposed future research directions. Results and discussions This paper argues that humans can attenuate and positively control the impact of their buildings on the environment, and as such mitigate the effects of climate change. This can be achieved by a new generation of LCA methods and tools that are model based and continuously learn from real-time data, while informing effective operation and management strategies of buildings and districts. Therefore, the consideration of the time dimension in product system modeling is becoming essential to understand the resulting pollutant emissions and resource consumption. This time dimension is currently missing in life cycle inventory databases. A further combination of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) models using time-dependent characterization factors can lead to more comprehensive and reliable LCA results. Conclusions and recommendations This paper promotes the concept of semantic-based dynamic (real-time) LCA, which addresses temporal and spatial variations in the local built and environmental ecosystem, and thus more effectively promotes a “cradle-to-grave-to-reincarnation” environmental sustainability capability. Furthermore, it is critical to leverage digital building resources (e.g., connected objects, semantic models, and artificial intelligence) to deliver accurate and reliable environmental assessments.

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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames: A Case Study of Two Residential Buildings in Iran

Cited by 28 publications

References 19 publications

Sustainability Identification of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames with Respect to Triple Bottom Line

Sustainability Identification of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames with Respect to Triple Bottom Line

Sustainability of Steel Office Buildings

The application of life cycle assessment in buildings: challenges, and directions for future research

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