scholarly journals Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Light Steel Framed Buildings with Cement-Based Walls and Floors

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10686
Author(s):  
Mona Abouhamad ◽  
Metwally Abu-Hamd

The objective of this paper is to apply the life cycle assessment methodology to assess the environmental impacts of light steel framed buildings fabricated from cold formed steel (CFS) sections. The assessment covers all phases over the life span of the building from material production, construction, use, and the end of building life, in addition to loads and benefits from reuse/recycling after building disposal. The life cycle inventory and environmental impact indicators are estimated using the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings. The input data related to the building materials used are extracted from a building information model of the building while the operating energy in the use phase is calculated using an energy simulation software. The Athena Impact Estimator calculates the following mid-point environmental measures: global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential, human health potential, ozone depletion potential, smog potential, eutrophication potential, primary and non-renewable energy (PE) consumption, and fossil fuel consumption. The LCA assessment was applied to a case study of a university building. Results of the case study related to GWP and PE were as follows. The building foundations were responsible for 29% of the embodied GWP and 20% of the embodied PE, while the CFS skeleton was responsible for 30% of the embodied GWP and 49% of the embodied PE. The production stage was responsible for 90% of the embodied GWP and embodied PE. When benefits associated with recycling/reuse were included in the analysis according to Module D of EN 15978, the embodied GWP was reduced by 15.4% while the embodied PE was reduced by 6.22%. Compared with conventional construction systems, the CFS framing systems had much lower embodied GWP and PE.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7990
Author(s):  
Suman Paneru ◽  
Forough Foroutan Jahromi ◽  
Mohsen Hatami ◽  
Wilfred Roudebush ◽  
Idris Jeelani

Traditional energy analysis in Building Information Modeling (BIM) only accounts for the energy requirements of building operations during a portion of the occupancy phase of the building’s life cycle and as such is unable to quantify the true impact of buildings on the environment. Specifically, the typical energy analysis in BIM does not account for the energy associated with resource formation, recycling, and demolition. Therefore, a comprehensive method is required to analyze the true environmental impact of buildings. Emergy analysis can offer a holistic approach to account for the environmental cost of activities involved in building construction and operation in all its life cycle phases from resource formation to demolition. As such, the integration of emergy analysis with BIM can result in the development of a holistic sustainability performance tool. Therefore, this study aimed at developing a comprehensive framework for the integration of emergy analysis with existing Building Information Modeling tools. The proposed framework was validated using a case study involving a test building element of 8’ × 8’ composite wall. The case study demonstrated the successful integration of emergy analysis with Revit®2021 using the inbuilt features of Revit and external tools such as MS Excel. The framework developed in this study will help in accurately determining the environmental cost of the buildings, which will help in selecting environment-friendly building materials and systems. In addition, the integration of emergy into BIM will allow a comparison of various built environment alternatives enabling designers to make sustainable decisions during the design phase.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7468
Author(s):  
José Pedro Carvalho ◽  
Ismael Alecrim ◽  
Luís Bragança ◽  
Ricardo Mateus

With the increasing concerns about building environmental impacts, building information modelling (BIM) has been used to perform different kinds of sustainability analysis. Among the most popular are the life cycle assessment (LCA) and building sustainability assessment (BSA). However, the integration of BIM-based LCA in BSA methods has not been adequately explored yet. This study addresses the relation between LCA and BSA within the BIM context for the Portuguese context. By performing an LCA for a Portuguese case study, a set of sustainability criteria from SBTool were simultaneous assessed during the process. The possibility of integrating BIM-based LCA into BSA methods can include more life cycle stages in the sustainability assessment and allow for normalising and producing more comparable results. BIM automates and connects different stages of the design process and provides information for multi-disciplinary data storage. However, there are still some constraints, such as different BSA/LCA databases and the necessity to manually introduce the embodied life cycle impacts of building materials. The scope of the BSA analysis can be expanded by integrating a complete LCA and be fostered by the support of BIM, effectively improving building sustainability according to local standards.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (01) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Michal Brandtner

The article deals with the data structure for the purpose of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings using the Building Information Model (BIM). LCA is a method that can be used to demonstrate the suitability of proposed materials, structures, or buildings in terms of their whole life cycle and its environmental impact. For the LCA evaluation it is crucial to obtain life cycle inventory (LCI) input data. The aim of the article is to define a BIM data structure for LCI purposes. The new methodology is based on standardization of non-graphic information model data structure called SNIM. Advantages of the proposed methodology have been demonstrated on the case study. These results are useful for expanding the BIM model with new data necessary for further LCA calculations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 368-370 ◽  
pp. 78-82
Author(s):  
Ping Shu ◽  
Jun Xu ◽  
Li Jun Wang

Based on theoretical studies of the urban spatial morphology, this paper introduces advanced concepts and methods of BIM (Building Information Model) into the urban design in Nanhe City ,and then respectively makes innovations of the urban design practice supported by BIM technology in the process of design, optimization and implementation of the program, attempting to explore BIM-based design patterns of the urban spatial morphology to make the traditional urban design process more rational and scientific, to expect to reach the green and sustainable urban spatial morphology.


Author(s):  
Sander van Nederveen ◽  
Reza Beheshti ◽  
Wim Gielingh

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is potentially a great technology for the expression of knowledge, supporting interoperability and communication throughout the life-cycle of a building. In fact, Building Information Modelling is not a simple technology. It requires a sound understanding of a number of abstract modelling concepts. Next to being a technology, BIM can also be regarded as a method for making a low or non-redundant (i.e. with every fact represented only once) model of an artefact that is sufficient to realize it as well as simulating it before it actually becomes physical reality. This chapter discusses the modelling concepts of BIM: what is Building Information Modelling, what is a Building Information Model and what are its rationale and objectives? A clear distinction will be made between (a) that what is being modelled, such as requirements, function, boundary conditions, building configuration, connectivity, shape, processes lifecycle aspects and discipline views, and (b) how it can be modelled, such as through parametric models, part libraries, nD models, various representations and presentations, including visualizations. Finally, there is a brief discussion of relevant methods and languages for information modelling, such as ISO 10303 (STEP, EXPRESS), BuildingSMART (IFC, IFD and IDM), process modelling and recent ontology-based approaches.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziwen Liu ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
Vincent J.L. Gan ◽  
Luke Peh

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and sustainable buildings are two future cornerstones of the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. In Singapore’s context, the Green Mark (GM) scoring system is prevalently used to assess the sustainability index of green buildings. BIM provides the semantic and geometry information of buildings, which is proliferated as the technological and process backbone for the green building assessment. This research, through vast literature reviews, identified that the current procedure of achieving a Green Mark score is tedious and cumbersome, which hampers productivity, especially in the calculation of building envelope thermal performance. Furthermore, the project stakeholders work in silos, in a non-collaborative, manual and 2D-based environment for generating relevant documentation to achieve the requisite green mark score. To this end, a cloud-based BIM platform was developed, with the aim of encouraging project stakeholders to collaboratively generate the project’s green mark score digitally in accordance with the regulatory requirements. Through this research, the authors have validated the Envelope Thermal Transfer Value (ETTV) calculation, which is one of the prerequisite criteria to achieve a Green Mark score, through a case study using the developed cloud-based BIM platform. The results indicated that using the proposed platform enhances the productivity and accuracy as far as ETTV calculation is concerned. This study provides a basis for future research in implementing the proposed platform for other criteria under the Green Mark Scheme.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Maurizio Cellura ◽  
Francesco Guarino ◽  
Sonia Longo

The building sector is one of the most relevant in terms of generation of wealth and occupation, but it is also responsible for significant consumption of natural resources and the generation of environmental impacts, mainly greenhouse gas emissions. In order to improve the eco profile of buildings during their life-cycle, the reduction of the use of resources and the minimization of environmental impacts have become, in the last years, some of the main objectives to achieve in the design of sustainable buildings. The application of the life-cycle thinking approach, looking at the whole life cycle of buildings, is of paramount importance for a real decarbonization and reduction of the environmental impacts of the building sector. This paper presents an application of the life-cycle assessment methodology for assessing the energy and environmental life-cycle impacts of a single-family house located in the Mediterranean area in order to identify the building components and life-cycle steps that are responsible of the higher burdens. The assessment showed that the largest impacts are located in the use stage; energy for heating is significant but not dominant, while the contribution of electricity utilized for households and other equipment resulted very relevant. High environmental impacts are also due to manufacture and transport of building materials and components.


2011 ◽  
Vol 368-373 ◽  
pp. 3797-3800
Author(s):  
Xu Dong Zeng ◽  
Wei Qiang Zhou

Construction project life-cycle management should be based on the visualization of a virtual building, through the establishment of a Building Information Model in the phase of architectural design as a life-cycle information carrier to realize complete information integration. This enables all phases and territories of the whole building life-cycle to achieve in-time information-sharing so as to overcome traditional territory management pattern. This also improves the running mode and information management during the phases of design, costing, construction and operation.


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