Innovative engineering approach for material, carbon and cost efficiency of steel buildings

Research has shown that there are significant greenhouse gas emissions to be saved through the efficient design of structural steel frames, however, this will have implications on project costs - the minimisation of which is often the primary driver of construction projects. This innovative project thus seeks to understand the trade-offs between the cost and carbon efficiency of the design and fabrication of steel frames, whilst also investigating the knock-on effects this optimisation has on whole life performance aspects, such as robustness, vibration performance, operational energy, deconstructability and material reuse.

This project will enable the consortium partners to offer an enhanced service that optimises the cost and carbon of steel frames, facilitating client procurement of buildings with minimised whole life impacts. There are wide ranging benefits of the study across social, economic and environmental factors, and these could start to be seen by the end of this two project as the work is applied to commercial projects.