Abstract
This study aims to develop a methodology for the selection of sustainable building materials for the reduction of embodied and operational energy for a complex infrastructure transportation project, i.e., elevated metro rail station of Ahmedabad, India by application of building information modelling (BIM) and factor comparison method (FCM). Evaluation of the alternative building materials and designs to obtain the best energy efficiency has been carried out using Revit Architecture 2018 and Green Building Studio. The achieved average embodied energy savings is about 73%, which is by the suggested alternative materials instead of existing ones. By application of FCM, which is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique, it has been observed that the polished Kota-stone flooring, stone-floor tile cladding, toughened fibre-glass ceiling and insulated fibre-glass door appear to be the most feasible sustainable material for flooring, wall cladding, ceiling, openings and fenestrations for the design of the metro rail station box in Ahmedabad, India. This study contributes significant knowledge in the field by highlighting the application of BIM as a tool for sustainable development and recommends a few alternate building materials and sustainable designs which would result in the reduction of energy usage for the metro-rail-station and other building structures leading to a sustainable future.
Highlights
The construction and building segment has a significant impact on the global environment because of its massive energy consumption (Shoubi, Bagchi and Barough, 2015)
A set of higherperformance materials was recommended for the purpose of reducing the energy consumption of the building, which would lead to reduction of embodied energy and carbon dioxide emissions
All these existing materials, which are utilised in the construction of the elevated metro rail station box, were considered as baseline materials based on which alternative materials were analysed and recommended to improve energy building performance throughout the entire project life cycle
Summary
The construction and building segment has a significant impact on the global environment because of its massive energy consumption (Shoubi, Bagchi and Barough, 2015). A study carried out by Bapat and Sarkar (2019) shows that there are around 549 active metro lines consisting of 11,300 km of infrastructure and 9,200 metro-stations in India. It highlights that the fossil fuels are largely used to produce more than 80% of the current energy demand. Despite huge investments in developing renewable and sustainable energy capacities, the world energy consumption has hardly decreased. It stated that buildings constitute almost 40% of total world energy consumption.
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