A novel life-cycle analysis framework to assess the performances of tall buildings considering the climate change

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Structural performance against wind hazards is necessary in modern tall building design, especially for structures in the region prone to tropical cyclones. In fact, wind-related failures and building life-cycle analysis (LCA) may be impacted by climate change on the increase of frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones. In this study, a novel LCA framework considering the climate change is proposed, which includes taking into account the climate change via the serviceability failure cost for the cases where the building vibrates exceeding the corresponding thresholds. In detail, the non-stationary Poisson process is used to model the occurrence and intensity of tropical cyclones, which in turn leads to the financial loss of the coastal building. Specifically, the vulnerability of the building is derived considering both the uncertainty of the extreme wind speeds in the tropical cyclone boundary layer and the fragility curve which includes the uncertainty from the structural damping ratio. To estimate the maintenance cost, the financial values associated with maintenance-related operations and the emission of greenhouse gas are combined. In order to illustrate the proposed LCA framework, a case study targeting a 240 m high benchmark building located close to the coast of Hong Kong is conducted. In addition, the sensitivity of the damping ratio, limit threshold, and climate change are assessed via the LCA results of the benchmark building.