Structural System Embodied Carbon Analysis for Super Tall Buildings

Building construction has been the main fields of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission in the world nowadays. With the increase of building height, the amount of carbon dioxide discharged by the building has increased significantly during the entire life cycle. The impact of super tall buildings on the environment has drawn increasing attention due to the huge energy and material consumption. In the life cycle of the building, the carbon emissions are composed of three parts, say embodied carbon, operating carbon and demolition and disposal carbon. Embodied carbon of structural system contributes the most carbon emission during the construction stage of a supper tall building and thus is an important index to measure the environmental impacts of different structural systems for a given super tall building. The embodied carbons and environmental costs of typical super tall building structures for different structural systems are thoroughly analyzed in this study. The distribution of embodied carbons of critical structural members, such as the frame columns, central core walls, structural floors and outrigger trusses are also discussed. At last, this paper analyses the fundamental factors which influence the environmental costs, and the analysis results will provide a guide for the sustainable structural design of super tall buildings.