Fast, interactive digital design tools to inform decision making in bridge design

Abstract

<p>In light of the climate crisis, it is important to be able to evaluate both embodied and operational carbon quickly and accurately to ensure the best overall decisions are made. This contribution will focus on the use of digital design tools to guide the former, by rapidly identifying the unavoidable embodied carbon associated with the construction of bridges. Practical design tools are introduced in web-app form (LayOpt:BRIDGE) and as a plugin to the Rhino/Grasshopper parametric modelling ecosystem (Peregrine), each giving results in just a few seconds. The speed of these methods facilitates exploration of different sites or materials. The results provide an absolute lower bound on the embodied carbon required, allowing evaluation of the extent to which it is theoretically possible for a given development to be advantageous. Additionally, the benchmark results obtained can be used both qualitatively and quantitatively to inform proposed designs.</p>