BIM-embedded life cycle carbon assessment of RC buildings using optimised structural design alternatives

The implications of optimised structural designs in the life cycle carbon performance of buildings have been systematically overlooked in previous studies. The paper addresses this common limitation offering an integrated sustainable structural analysis at building level. To achieve this, a BIM-embedded approach was established utilising embodied carbon metrics and results from heuristic structural optimisation. A real building scenario was used to test the proposed approach in the context of multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Results show how the building life cycle performance is affected by the use of structurally optimised designs. The structural floors in particular, not only cover the largest proportion of the embodied carbon in the structure but they are also responsible for a large proportion of the carbon emissions of the tested building elements. The results obtained in this paper justified the need for more comprehensive efforts in the design optimisation of RC floors. Overall, it is suggested that the unclear interpretation of the optimisation outputs would result in the selection of structural designs that could compromise the buildings carbon performance.