Life-Cycle Assessment of Contemporary and Classical Seismic Retrofitting Approaches Applied to a Reinforced Concrete Building in Israel

Abstract

This study aims to select an eco-friendly earthquake-resistant design using life-cycle assessments (LCAs). The study compares LCAs of three retrofitting cases: concrete shear-wall strengthening (Case 1); reinforced concrete column jacketing with shear-wall strengthening (Case 2); and high-damping rubber bearing base isolation with viscous fluid damping devices (Case 3). These cases were applied to a five-story reinforced concrete building built according to the design principles widely used in Israel in the 1970s. The seismic-bearing capacity of the retrofitted building was improved in all three cases, where Case 3 was observed as being the most effective retrofitting measure. The environmental performance of the retrofitting measures was assessed using the ReCiPe 2016 midpoint, which indicated that Case 3 was the best with the least environmental impact, Case 1 was intermediate with moderate environmental impact, and Case 2 was the worst with the most environmental impact. However, the ReCiPe 2016 endpoint single-score results showed that Case 3 caused significantly less damage than Cases 1 and 2, which caused similar significant environmental damage. These results indicate that LCA should be used to select an eco-friendly earthquake-resistant design.