TITLE:
Influence of Choice of Structural System & In-Fill Masonry on the Embodied Energy & Cost of a Low-Rise Residential Urban-Building Indian Case Study
AUTHORS:
B. N. Varsha, S. Raghunath, Mangala Keshava
KEYWORDS:
Embodied Energy, Initial Cost, Structural System, Masonry Alternatives, Low-Rise Residential Buildings
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Energy Efficiency,
Vol.6 No.1,
March
31,
2017
ABSTRACT: In the urban residential building stock, a major proportion is constituted by low-rise individual buildings. In addition to cost, quality and duration, energy consumed for the project needs to be accounted in the decision making process. Minimizing the cost of construction without compromising on the architectural and structural requirements is the primary objective of the residential buildings of stake-holders, especially the owners. The choice of structural system and the materials used for construction play a crucial role in this effort. This means that the use of expensive and/or voluminous materials such as cement, steel, masonry etc. is optimized. This could lead to significant reduction in embodied energy as well, if the choice of the structural system is prudently made. In this paper, an attempt has been made to quantify the cost and embodied energy benefits for a low-rise residential building by choosing two different structural systems, namely moment resisting framed (MRF) construction system and the partly load-bearing (PLB) system. The influence of choice of materials, contributing to reduction of cost and/or energy is discussed. It is clearly noticed that, when the structural system is re-configured as a PLB system from the existing MRF system there is significant reduction in cost and embodied energy without changing the architectural form.