Abstract
Existing buildings can reach a performance enhancement and extend their nominal service life through renovation measures such as seismic rehabilitation. In particular, when buildings have almost exhausted their service life, seeking an optimal solution should consider whether costs and environmental effects are worthwhile, or new construction is preferred. In this paper, a methodology to consider seismic hazard into probabilistic approaches for life-cycle analyses is presented considering the possibility of structural enhancement over an extended building lifespan. A life-cycle-based decision support tool for building renovation measures is developed and applied to a selected case study. Unlike standard “static” analyses, which in this work show shortcomings by underestimating impacts of vulnerable buildings, such an approach brings out environmental and economic advantages of retrofit measures designed to improve the structural performance.
Highlights
In a perspective of sustainable development, the Europe 2020 strategy aims for a control of environmental impacts as an instrument of European economic growth
The construction sector is subjected to a particular attention: with reference to recent information of International Energy Agency (IEA), the existing building stock is responsible for 50% of material depletion and 40% of energy consumption, generates 36% of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and a third of the total waste [1]
The frequency is evaluated by Geophysics and Volcanology institutions on the basis of the classical probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) model
Summary
In a perspective of sustainable development, the Europe 2020 strategy aims for a control of environmental impacts as an instrument of European economic growth. The renovation of existing buildings through retrofit is an effective strategy: the overall building performance is improved and additions of new volumes and surfaces are allowed, without encountering any demolition and rebuilding, which has proved to have higher environmental impacts [3,4]. This challenge calls research for improvements to established design procedures and construction approaches, which could be more effective and support the achievement of a net carbon neutral society
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