Framework for Designing Sustainable Structures through Steel Beam Reuse

Abstract

The architecture, engineering, and construction sector requires carbon-intensive materials, such as steel, in the construction process and generates a large amount of waste in the life cycle. This causes global warming and waste problems. The demand for the reuse of construction materials is increasing, although it is not the convention, to reduce the environmental impact. Although the sustainable effect of the reuse of materials has been proven in several studies, materials are not always reused in practice, owing to the lack of an information system for reusable materials and the economic uncertainty. In this study, we propose a framework for designing structures using reusable steel beams. The design framework consists of a material bank and a design support tool. The material bank provides information on reusable materials based on the building information modeling. The design support tool generates efficient material procurement plans and provides information about the environmental and economic impact of the project. In a case study used to verify the framework, CO2 emissions were reduced by up to 77% through material reuse, which was consistent with the results of previous studies. However, owing to the cost of processing reusable materials, the overall cost was found to increase by up to about 40%. Therefore, an economic analysis over the entire life cycle when using reusable materials needs to be done.

Exploring the synergies between Life Cycle cost / Whole Life Cost and Building Information Modeling: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Concerning these concepts, a study from Di Biccari [29] investigated the use of BIM to support Circular Economy (CE) and LCC indicators to compare alternatives more easily, while Kim [30] proposed a design support tool for material reuse assessment, utilizing BIM to extract data from the deconstructed structure and LCC as an indicator of assessment. Another concept found was Net Zero Emission (NZE), referring to energy consumption and carbon reduction.…”

“…It is used to optimize the use of products/ materials to reduce waste generation. [29][30][31] Net Zero Emissions (NZE) Concept used for the design of high energy efficiency buildings to reduce energy consumption and thus carbon emissions, to reduce the building's carbon footprint. [2,4,32,33,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69] Value Engineering (VE) Concept used to optimize decision making to create value through the life cycle of a project by considering costs, benefits and quality.…”

BIM-based time-cost optimization of a large-span spatial steel structure in an airport terminal building

“…Most studies developed BIM-based methods for cost estimation of building projects. Kim and Kim (2020) integrated BIM model and life-cycle cost analysis for reusable steel beams. Rad et al (2021) focused on the design of resilient buildings by establishing a BIM-based framework for optimizing life-cycle costs.…”

Decision Framework to Balance Environmental, Technical, Logistical, and Economic Criteria When Designing Structures With Reused Components

“…A cost analysis of steel reuse case studies in the UK has been conducted by Dunant et al (2018). Kim and Kim (2020) proposed a design tool for steel reuse that provides a lifecycle cost analysis parallelly to an LCA. An underlying result of both works is the generally conflicting nature of economic costs and environmental impacts of reuse.…”