City Research Online

Abstract

In conventional engineering practice, the sustainable seismic design of reinforced concrete (RC) frames is pursued with the aid of the designer’s experience and/or trial and error approaches. Nevertheless, the complexity of this structural design task, as well as the demand for sustainable solutions in limited time, set the use of automated structural optimization methodologies as an attractive alternative approach. In this study, it is shown that the use of structural optimization techniques in seismic design of RC frames can lead to significant reductions not only in economic costs but also in environmental impacts expressed in terms of embodied CO2 emissions. The latter is significant because in many countries around the world, including most of the top-10 countries in CO2 emissions from cement production, RC structures are designed to resist earthquake loads. Moreover, the trade-offs between the economic costs of earthquake-resistant RC frames and the embodied CO2 emissions are presented. It is concluded that, typically, the designs of RC frames for minimum construction cost and embodied CO2 emissions are closely related. Therefore, both objectives can be achieved almost simultaneously in the framework of optimum seismic design of RC frames.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	SECED allows authors to deposit their AAM under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). The AAM is deposited under this licence and that any reuse is allowed in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence. To reuse the AAM for commercial purposes, permission must be sought by contacting seced@ice.org.uk.
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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