Abstract
The reuse system proposed by the authors is an overall business system for realizing a cyclic reuse flow through the processes of design, fabrication, construction, maintenance, demolition and storage. The reuse system is one of the methods to reduce the environmental burden in the field of building steel structures. These buildings are assumed to be demolished within approximately 30 years or more for physical, architectural, economic and social reasons in Japan. In this paper, focusing on building steel structures used for plants, warehouses and offices without fire protection, the performance of steel structural members for reuse is evaluated by a non-destructive test. First, performance evaluation procedures for a non-destructive test, such as mechanical properties, chemical compositions, dimension and degradation, are shown. Tensile strengths are estimated using Vickers hardness measured by a portable ultrasonic hardness tester, and chemical compositions are measured by a portable optical emission spectrometer. The weldability of steel structural members is estimated by carbon equivalent and weld crack sensitivity composition using chemical compositions. Finally, the material grade of structural members of the building steel structure for reuse is estimated based on the proposed procedures.
Highlights
Based on the Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC, in order to reduce the amount of anthropogenic emissions to the same level as natural absorption, it is widely accepted to set the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the year 2050 [1,2]
If test pieces can be obtained by building steel structures, structural members are evaluated by destructive tests
If test pieces cannot be obtained because building structures are in use, structural members should be evaluated by non-destructive tests, such as the ultrasonic hardness test and chemical composition test
Summary
Based on the Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC, in order to reduce the amount of anthropogenic emissions to the same level as natural absorption, it is widely accepted to set the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the year 2050 [1,2]. As an architectural effort to reduce the global environmental burden, the authors have been pursuing studies on evaluating the environmental burden of building steel structures, focusing on the amount of waste and life cycle CO2 emissions and on a reuse system for steel products. Implementing any of the following measures can be effective at reducing the environmental burden in the life cycle of building steel structures: extending the service life of buildings themselves; reuse, which is extending service life at the structural member level; and recycling, which is extending service life at the material level; shown in Figure 1 [5,6]. There are always a number of buildings that need to be demolished for physical, architectural, economic and social reasons When such building steel structures have been demolished in the past, their structural members have been scrapped for recycling. Steel undergoes no major changes due to aging, except for rust and plasticization caused by large-scale earthquakes.
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