Comprehensive investigation of embodied carbon emissions, costs, design parameters, and serviceability in optimum green construction of two-way slabs in buildings

Abstract

This paper presents an optimum design model for the green construction of reinforced concrete two-way slabs in buildings. The model was applied to various design cases of two-way slabs in residential, office, and commercial buildings to derive designs that minimize environmental impact. The sustainability and economic feasibility of the derived designs were extensively compared with those of the conventional design method in relation to the material composition of concrete and steel in slabs, design parameters, and dominant design factors. As compared to the conventional design method, the optimum sustainable design method achieved average CO2 emission reductions of 4.94%, 11.40%, and 19.96% for residential, office, and commercial buildings, respectively, for all design cases considered in this study. Moreover, a multi-objective optimum design method that could simultaneously minimize embodied carbon emissions, cost, and vibration responses was created to consider the serviceability for vibrations induced by human activity in buildings. The design method was applied for the design cases of slabs in residential and office buildings, which are sensitive to human-induced vibrations. A design with increased concrete strength was derived to satisfy vibration criteria in the case of a residential building. This resulted in an increase of 8.89% in embodied carbon emissions compared with the conventional design method. On the contrary, in the case of an office building, the derived design showed a reduction of 15.79% in embodied carbon emissions while satisfying vibration criteria.