Tag: engineering practice
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Material efficiency as a key opportunity to reduce embodied carbon in structural systems: Data insights from 226 fully designed projects
Data on embodied carbon in our sector offer unique opportunities to answer key questions about (1) the relative contributions of structural components to emissions, (2) the relationship between material system choice and resulting quantities, and (3) the relationship between material quantities and embodied carbon. Although such analyses have been performed for synthetic data, these types of findings are…
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SEI “Towards Zero Carbon” Workshop at Northeastern University
Led by Prof. Jerry Hajjar, outgoing president of the Structural Engineering Institute and Department Chair at Northeastern University CEE, the workshop “Towards Zero Carbon: Developing a Roadmap for the Structural Engineering Profession and the Structural Engineering Institute, ASCE” took place at Northeastern University, bringing together practitioners and academics to envision the path to a net…
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Reducing embodied carbon with material optimization in structural engineering practice: Perceived barriers and opportunities
Structural engineers play an essential role in reducing embodied carbon emissions in buildings, which contribute significantly to global carbon emissions. In this work, 39 structural engineers primarily from the Northeastern US are surveyed on how embodied carbon is reduced in practice, particularly through computational tools that facilitate material efficiency (e.g. parametric design models and structural optimization tools). Leading barriers to…
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Strategies to reduce embodied carbon in early-stage structural design
While many strategies have been identified and proposed for reducing embodied carbon in early-stage structural design, they are rarely synthesized to discuss their relative effectiveness and compatibility. Discussing the strategies together rather than individually is important because not all strategies are equally effective or can be implemented simultaneously. This paper presents a synthesized discussion by…
Structural Futures Lab 