Avaliação de ciclo de vida de estrutura de concreto armado: estudo de caso em uma residência

Abstract

Given that meeting human aspirations and needs generates demand for buildings that imply environmental impacts and this industrial sector is one of the biggest consumers of natural resources it is necessary to use a methodology that makes it possible to quantify the impacts generated. The LCA studies environmental aspects and potential impacts over the life of a product. It is known that a product system comprises numerous unit processes and the LCA would require handling a massive amount of data, to solve this problem a variety of software was developed in order to facilitate the performance of mass and energy balance calculations. The present work consists in carrying out an LCA of the reinforced concrete structure of a high-end residence, using the OpenLCA software with the support of the European ELCD and American USDA databases as well as the quantification of environmental impacts, with the aid of the CML baseline analysis method, generated by the execution of the structure. The formulation used for the survey was defined based on the execution criteria that required the materials under analysis. From the data presented, it is possible to see that when the impacts are normalized by the volume of concrete produced, all structural elements generate practically equal impacts per m³ of concrete. By carrying out the Life Cycle Assessment of the structure, it was possible to quantify the environmental impacts associated with it, highlighting the values of Marine aquatic ecotoxicity, Global Warming and Human toxicity. While the normalization by the volume of concrete allowed to perceive the direct relationship between the impacts and the consumption of raw material.