Assessment of the life cycle of masonry walls in residential buildings

University of Zielona Góra, Institute of Structural Engineering, Poland

^* Corresponding author: b.nowogonska@ib.uz.zgora.pl

Abstract

Environmental assessment over the course of the full life cycle of a building (LCA - Life Cycle Assessment) covers the environmental burden connected with energy consumption and the accompanying emission of contaminants into the atmosphere from the moment of obtaining a raw material and all stages of its processing and treatment, through the service life of a building, up to the moment that the use value of the building expires and the storage of waste. Literature on the subject is already very rich in this scope. There are numerous works pertaining to the guidelines for calculating all costs of the life cycle of buildings, i.e. environmental, economic and social costs. In these works, however, not much is said about the means of determining the life cycle of building structures. This is very important, especially in the case of the analysing the cycle of the further existence of buildings no longer in use, as well as newly designed ones. The article presents a method of predicting the performance characteristics of a building over the course of its use. The application of this method has been illustrated by the prediction of the performance characteristics of masonry walls, verified by studies carried out on existing buildings. The method - the purpose of research, can be applied to determine the life cycle (LC) of buildings for which LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis) is carried out. A significant problem pertaining to every object in use is ensuring adequate reliability. The process of modeling reliability should have a mathematical basis enabling the problem to be described in detail. The ultimate aim is applying this description when solving problems connected with planning renovation work.