PSI - Issue 64

Gabriella Maselli et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 64 (2024) 1743–1751 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Fig. 1. Methodological framework steps.

5. Discussion and conclusions In 2019, the European Commission (EC) introduces the Green Deal, which recommends that the construction industry and other energy-intensive sectors adopt life-cycle approaches to assess the emissions of products and materials. It also encourages the promotion of materials and strategies aimed at the transition to a circular economy. Now, ensuring compliance with the principles of the Green Deal has become a fundamental requirement right from the design phase of new materials. Consequently, the evaluation of design solutions is changing significantly in this direction, as it becomes increasingly crucial to consider new aspects in related analyses. For these reasons, we propose an approach based on the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) paradigm that is useful for evaluating the life cycle costs of innovative structures, as well as for identifying among several alternatives the one that performs best from both a technical and economic point of view. It is a five-stage methodology: (i) assessment of the technical-mechanical characteristics and structural analysis of the building; (ii) identification, classification and estimation of all life cycle costs of the structure; (iii) estimation of the life cycle cost of each alternative; (iv) sensitivity analysis and/or risk analysis; (v) comparison of the performance of the design alternatives. This approach allows the designer to choose the material with the lowest life-cycle costs for the same mechanical and technical characteristics. By using Monte Carlo simulation, one can also consider the inherent uncertainty in the costs of unconventional materials, which is often considerable. Comparing the life-cycle cost of competing alternatives can be useful for: (i) project budgeters and cost estimators that can implement the defined approach to support the design and development of structures made of innovative materials; (ii) researchers and developers, who can use the results to optimise processes for selecting circular materials; (iii) and social planners and policy who can employ the findings to develop more effective policies and regulations that encourage the development and adoption of sustainable technologies. In general terms, the use of such a model allows effective investment choices to be made and can be a valuable support in the field of civil engineering whenever it is necessary to identify the most economically viable of several structural alternatives. A limitation of the approach may be related to data availability. Therefore, to limit the uncertainty in the evaluation, it is necessary to have as many technical/structural specifications of the building under consideration and the materials used. Research prospects concern, first and foremost, the validation of the model through its application to case studies: these studies are already underway. There are also plans to extend the model to the assessment of the environmental and social impacts generated by the design alternatives, in a cradle-to-grave perspective. References

AlJaber, A., Alasmari, E., Martinez-Vazquez, P., Baniotopoulos, C. (2023). Life Cycle Cost in Circular Economy of Buildings by Applying Building Information Modeling (BIM): A State of the Art. Buildings, 13, 1858. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071858