Sustainability of Cold-formed Steel Portal Frames in Developing Countries in the Context of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costs

Johnston, Ross P.D.; McGrath, Teresa; Nanukuttan, Sreejith; Lim, James B.P.; Soutsos, Marios; Chiang, Mei Chee; Masood, Rehan; Rahman, Mohammad Afjalur

doi:10.1016/j.istruc.2017.11.003

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Johnston et al contrasted the CFS and hot-rolled steel (HRS) as the portal frames using a cradle-to-gate system boundary. The study revealed that using CFS as the primary framing material resulted in better embodied carbon (up to 30%) than using HRS for the 18 m and 24 m spans [51]. In addition, Ortiz-Rodríguez et al conducted a comparative whole LCA study in the context of different geographical conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They discovered that the service life of a building and its components had a direct link with the environmental performance, namely the replacement intervals, and that it was recognised as the third major contributing factor to the overall environmental effects after use and pre-use [55]. Referring to previous building LCA studies [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53], it seemed that the lifespan of buildings has ranged between 50 and 100 years, resulting in varied assessment outcomes. The condition leads to a knowledge gap in implementing environmental assessment of building products and results in varied assessment results, primarily caused by the various scopes of assessment and the unidentical design of the buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings

et al. 2022

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In New Zealand, housing is typically low density, with light timber framing being the dominant form of construction with more than 90% of the market. From 2020, as a result of the global pandemic, there was a shortage of timber in New Zealand, resulting in increased popularity for light steel framing, the main alternative to timber for housing. At the same time, the New Zealand government is committed to sustainability practises through legislation and frameworks, such as the reduction of whole-of-life carbon emissions for the building industry. New Zealand recently announced reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% within 2030. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects associated with a product over its life cycle. Despite the popularity of LCA in the construction industry of New Zealand, prior research results seem varied. There is no unified NZ context database to perform an LCA for buildings. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive study using LCA was conducted to quantify and compare the quantity of carbon emissions from two commonly designed houses in the Auckland region, one built from light timber and the other from light steel, both designed for a lifespan of 90 years. The cradle-to-cradle system boundary was used for the LCA. From the results of this study, it was found that the light steel house had 12.3% more carbon in total (including embodied and operational carbons) when compared to the light timber house, of which the manufacturing of two houses had a difference of 50.4% in terms of carbon emissions. However, when the end-of-life (EOL) analysis was included, it was found that the extra carbon could be offset due to the steel’s recyclability, reducing the amount of embodied carbon in the manufacturing process. Therefore, there was no significant difference in carbon emissions between the light steel and the light timber building, with the difference being only 12.3%.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings

et al. 2022

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“…The type and amount of building materials used in the construction industry substantially impact the carbon footprint [12]. Cold-formed steel (CFS) is considered a suitable material to build energy-efficient buildings [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critical Review on Optimization of Cold-Formed Steel Members for Better Structural and Thermal Performances

et al. 2022

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The construction and building sectors are currently responsible globally for a significant share of the total energy consumption and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. The use of Modern Methods of Construction can help reduce this, one example being the use of cold-formed steel (CFS) construction. CFS channel sections have inherent advantages, such as their high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent potential for recycling and reusing. CFS members can be rolled into different cross-sectional shapes and optimizing these shapes can further improve their load-bearing capacities, resulting in a more economical and efficient building solution. Conversely, the high thermal conductivity of steel can lead to thermal bridges, which can significantly reduce the building’s thermal performance and energy efficiency. Hence, it is also essential to consider the thermal energy performance of the CFS structures. This paper reviews the existing studies on the structural optimization of CFS sections and the thermal performance of such CFS structures. In total, over 160 articles were critically reviewed. The methodologies used in the existing literature for optimizing CFS members for both structural and thermal performances have been summarized and presented systematically. Research gaps from the existing body of knowledge have been identified, providing guidelines for future research.

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“…A life cycle assessment (LCA) is the most well-known methodology for quantifying the environmental impact of a product, including building products [50][51][52][53]. It can be used to evaluate the expected environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its life cycle, from raw material acquisition through production, distribution, use, maintenance, and disposal [54]. There are two primary approaches to LCA: process LCA and inputoutput (IO) LCA, but hybrid combinations of the two are also possible [55].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Sustainability of Steel Roofs: Life Cycle Assessment of a Case Study Roof

et al. 2022

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In New Zealand (NZ), steel roofing is the most common roofing type for residential buildings. However, the environmental impact of steel roofs are not negligible. Steel roofs account for up to 30% of the upfront embodied carbon for a typical NZ house, highlighting the importance of investigating and reducing the environmental impacts of steel roofs in meeting the net-zero carbon goal of the NZ government. There are several research gaps in investigating the impacts of steel roofs, such as the variation in emissions between local and imported steel coil products, the unavailability of life cycle assessment (LCA) data, and additional impacts from ancillary items. Therefore, this study performed an LCA of a case study roof in NZ to investigate these gaps using GaBi Ts software. It was found that the overall impacts from the steel roofs, including the ancillary items, were 12 kg CO2-eq/m2, where the ancillary items accounted for less than 10% of total emissions. The prepainted steel coils manufactured globally had less than 70% emissions when compared to the emissions of locally manufactured prepainted steel coils. In addition, the roll forming processes had an insignificant effect on overall emissions, whereas the transportation of steel coils had a notable impact.

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Sustainability of Cold-formed Steel Portal Frames in Developing Countries in the Context of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costs

Cited by 18 publications

References 5 publications

A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings

A Comparative Study on the Life Cycle Assessment of New Zealand Residential Buildings

A Critical Review on Optimization of Cold-Formed Steel Members for Better Structural and Thermal Performances

Improving Sustainability of Steel Roofs: Life Cycle Assessment of a Case Study Roof

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