Model-base Life-Cycle Assessment
	Name: Model-base Life-Cycle Assessment File: Ulm Presentation Final 5-8-12.pdf Size(MB): 2.4MB Extension: PDF Event: 2012 ICSC - SEATTLE Speaker Name: Ulm, F. Managed by: sdickens Date Uploaded: June 13, 2012; 2:13 pm Download Count: 55 Downloads This Month: 55 Your Geographic Information: Country: United States State/Region: City: Zip Code: Area Code: 0 Your IP: 54.234.231.49 Description: One of the key challenges of sustainable development of our built Civil Infrastructure is to develop a quantitative approach that can be used by engineers to include sustainability criteria in the design phase for the choice of materials, structural solutions, implementation of innovation strategies, and so on. The first engineering tools that emerged in the field of quantitative sustainable engineering relate to Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). Yet, the current practice in LCA is based on inventory (counting the carbon of the different materials and processes used in construction), and is generally devoid of any design consideration, beyond the choice of a particular structure and material, which restricts the field of application of this technique mainly to the embodied energy. However, as it is now well known, the main part of e.g. the carbon footprint of the built infrastructure (pavement, buildings etc.) relates to the use phase. In this talk, we propose a new approach of model-based LCA, in which modern engineering design tools seamlessly interface with LCA. This “LCA-Plus” approach is illustrated for comparative LCAs of different pavement systems and residential homes in the United States. We show that interfacing modern design tools with model-based LCA provides not only a means to moving LCA into the design space of engineers. Through its link with materials, structural and architectural attributes, the LCA-plus approach holds the promise to unleash the innovation potential concurrently developed in concrete sciences, from atoms to the national network.