The CTBUH has reached the next stage of a research project
which aims to assess the environmental impacts and energy consumption of tall
building structures, from the production of the building materials to their
end-of-life.
The project is dubbed A Whole Life Cycle Assessment of the
Sustainable Aspects of Structural Systems in Tall Buildings.
A total of 12 leading structural engineering firms have
provided material quantities of 16 different structural scenarios, eight for a
248-metre tall tower, and eight for a 490-metre-tall tower which, if
constructed, would be the fifth-tallest skyscraper in the world.
The research will be based on the Life-Cycle Assessment
(LCA) analysis of a number of different structural and construction scenarios.
Structural scenarios include: all-concrete construction,
composite columns, 100 per cent steel diagrid structures and mixed structures
with concrete cores and steel columns.
The research will create a definitive comparison of the
life-cycle implications of steel, concrete and composite structural systems in
tall buildings.
The study will also develop a methodology for the assessment
of life cycle energy and carbon use in tall building structural systems, which
could be adopted as a standard tool for the industry.
“This study is timely and unique because it encompasses all
processes and environmental releases, beginning with raw material extraction,
design through construction, use and final demolition or re-use of the system,”
said CTBUH senior research associate and co-principal investigator Dr. Payam
Bahrami.
“When deciding between two or more alternatives, LCA can
help decision-makers compare all major environmental impacts caused by systems,
processes or services.”
Last year, the research team visited demolition company
Despe to understand the complicated and still-unstudied aspects of the
demolition of tall building structures and gather data on the energy
consumption used in the demolition phase.
This data will be used to understand the impacts demolition
has on the total life cycle energy consumption of a tall building, considered
against the energy consumption of the construction and operational phases.
The team also discovered more about Despe’s patented
“TopDownWay” method to demolish buildings. It involves these of a modular steel
platform that caps the top of the building, enclosing the demolition activity,
which occurs at the top floor.
This prevents dust and noise from escaping the building and
allows operations to be conducted safely, potentially on a 24-hour basis.
When the top floor of the building is entirely demolished,
the platform is jacked down one floor and the work continues, taking the
building down in a method almost unnoticeable from the exterior.
Other visits made as part of the research process have
included trips to the United States where meetings were held in Illinois with
Bluff City Materials, which takes in clean, broken concrete for recycling
before selling it to contractors. The purpose was to gain a greater
understanding of the amount of energy that goes into recycling concrete, along
with the volume of concrete recycled on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.
The CTBUH is expected to report its final findings in
November, 2014, with several further interim outputs to be issued before then.
The multi-faceted research project is sponsored by a
$300,000 grant from ArcelorMittal.
Source: Sourceable.net
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