Goal and Scope
The Life Cycle Assessment for the Multipurpose Sports Hall focused on the transversal beams supporting the roof structure. Three distinct design options were assessed considering their primary energy demand, global warming potential and water demand. The Figure below presents the three design options considered.
Life Cycle Stages
The Life Cycle Assessment included the life cycle stages from cradle to grave. The functional Unit (fU) considered was 1.0m of designed Beam, for a transversal span of 12.0m. Figure 2 showcases the considered life cycle stages, performance criteria and system boundary.
Impact Assessment
The impact assessment yielded the following results. The Steel option has the highest values for all performance criteria considered in this assessment. When compared to the Glulam option, the Reinforced option is more efficient regarding the primary energy demand, while the Glulam option is more efficient in terms of global warming potential and water demand. Figure 3. presents the results of the impact assessment.
Multi Criteria Decision Making
In order to evaluate the material strategies in a decision context the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied. The criteria ranking that was applied in the AHP emphasized the importance of minimizing the global warming potential in a design, while a low primary energy- and water demand are of lesser importance. Figure 4 indicates that in this scenario the design option for Glulam would be strongly preferred.
