Conference paper
Steel or Wood Frame? A Life Cycle Comparison of External Wall Systems through Deconstruction and Reuse
Construction Research Congress 2018 : sustainable design and construction and education, v 2018-, pp 482-492
01 Jan 2018
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The Construction sector uses 40% of the earth's resources, much of which ends up as "wastes" from our civilization. We can reduce resource use and eliminate demolition waste by simply reusing building materials. Some building components are easy to take apart and reuse while others require additional costs and effort. Some generate more environmental impacts during their recycling. The paper presents a study on understanding the lifecycle impact of recycling different building components and materials, thus allowing the industry to better understand the true lifecycle environmental impacts of reuse and recycling. The study compares the embodied energy, global warming potential, and water use of a wood frame and a steel frame for a manufactured home in the United States. The analysis assumes the wood frame would be demolished and rebuilt for three life cycles, while the steel frame was assumed to be continuously reused. The analysis is based on process-based life cycle analysis (LCA) and hybrid-LCA. Considerations on transportation distances and reuse rates were made. The analyses showed that, by using a cradle-to-cradle (C2C) framework, both methods generate conflicting results. The impact of the results to manufacturers, designers, policy-makers, building owners, and researchers are discussed.
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Details
- Title
- Steel or Wood Frame? A Life Cycle Comparison of External Wall Systems through Deconstruction and Reuse
- Creators
- Fernanda Cruz Rios - Arizona State UniversityDavid Grau - Arizona State UniversityWai K. Chong - Arizona State University
- Publication Details
- Construction Research Congress 2018 : sustainable design and construction and education, v 2018-, pp 482-492
- Conference
- Construction Research Congress 2018 : sustainable design and construction and education : selected papers from the Construction Research Congress 2018 (New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 02 Apr 2018–04 Apr 2018)
- Publisher
- Amer Soc Civil Engineers
- Number of pages
- 11
- Grant note
- International Cooperation Program CAPES/LASPAU
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000541103300048
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85048709102
- Other Identifier
- 9780784481301; 078448130X; 991022188573804721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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Source: SDGs in the Output
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Construction & Building Technology
- Green & Sustainable Science & Technology