Smart steel: new paradigms for the reuse of steel enabled by digital tracking and modelling

When reconfigured into a cohesive system, a series of existing digital technologies may facilitate disassembly, take back and reuse of structural steel components, thereby improving resource efficiency and opening up new business paradigms. The paper examines whether Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology coupled with Building Information Modelling (BIM) may enable components and/or assemblies to be tracked and imported into virtual models for new buildings at the design stage. The addition of stress sensors to components, which provides the capability of quantifying the stress properties of steel over its working life, may also support best practice reuse of resources. The potential to improve resource efficiency in many areas of production and consumption, emerging from a novel combination of such technologies, is highlighted using a theoretical case study scenario. In addition, a case analysis of the demolition/deconstruction of a former industrial building is conducted to illustrate potential savings in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) from reuse when compared with recycling. The paper outlines the reasoning behind the combination of the discussed technologies and alludes to some possible applications and new business models. For example, a company that currently manufactures and 'sells' steel, or a third party, could find new business opportunities by becoming a 'reseller' of reused steel and providing a 'steel service'. This could be facilitated by its ownership of the database that enables it to know the whereabouts of the steel and to be able to warrant its properties and appropriateness for reuse in certain applications.