Abstract
Long-span timber floor elements increase the adaptability of a building and they exhibit a significant market potential. High cost of the floor elements is a challenge, and the timber sector is under substantial pressure to find more economical solutions without weakening otherwise favourable environmental performance. The range of technical timber-based materials and components, structural typologies, overlays and ceiling systems represent an immense solution space when searching for a competitive design for a specific building application. Finding the optimum solution requires a computational procedure. In this study a recent development for the accounting of manufacturing resources for timber elements is utilized to build an optimization framework for cost and ECO2 minimisation of timber floor elements finalized at the factory gate. The design of the element is formulated as a discrete optimization problem which is solved by a mixed-integer sequential linearization procedure. Various material combinations and constraint combinations are treated. The optimization framework provides a tool for rapid design exploration that can be used in timber floor design situations. The results of the calculations carried out in this study provide insight on the general trends of optimum floor elements. The optimization model is used to analyse the characteristics of the optimum designs, and a comparison between the current and the proposed method for the second generation of Eurocode 5 is chosen as a vehicle for demonstrating achievable implications.
Highlights
The built environment is significantly contributing to the climate change today and represents a substantial opportunity for mitigating it tomorrow
The performance of the MISLP optimization technique was evaluated by comparing the design obtained by MISLP to the global minimum found by manual exploration of the solution space in all 56 cases
The MISLP optimization method demonstrates adequate properties and performances required to be run directly from a server to generate immediate designs based on parameters collected from the user interface
Summary
The built environment is significantly contributing to the climate change today and represents a substantial opportunity for mitigating it tomorrow. The role of the construction sector must increasingly be addressed as a measure to decelerate global warming [1]. This sector is strongly identified with negative climatic impact, accounting for 36% of the global energy use and an associated 39% of the carbon dioxide emissions [2]. The challenge is substantial, and the green house gas (GHG) emissions related to the construction sector are likely to be doubled by 2050 [4]. The last three decades the GHG emissions from the construction sector have increased with 55% and are currently one of the three fastest growing sources [5]
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