Environmental impacts of different types of floor slabs

The implementation of a more sustainable construction sector is a reality today. To this end, understanding how concrete and steel structures and their respective structural elements, such as slabs, columns, beams, walls, etc., impact the environment is an effective strategy for generating sustainability. This research aims to determine the environmental impact of the six most common types of floor slabs in buildings. These types of floor slabs are: solid slabs, in-situ joist slabs, precast concrete joist slabs, metal joist slabs and, finally, both permanent and removable waffle slabs. To address this research, an office building has been modelled in CYPECAD, where one of the floors has been subjected to study. To determine the environmental impacts, the methodology par excellence, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), was used. The system boundaries selected for the LCA correspond to a cradle-to-gate scope for the building, and the results obtained covered eight impact categories. Among the main results per unit area (m2) of floor slab and for the Global Warming Potential impact category (kg CO2 eq), it turns out that the concrete slab type yields a value of 93,01 kg CO2 eq/m2, which represents an increase in emissions of up to 51,68% compared to the in situ concrete joist slab type (44,94 kg CO2 eq/m2) and even an increase of 53,27% compared to the metal joist slab type (43,46 kg CO2 eq). This research has yielded results that can be easily extrapolated to other buildings to determine their environmental impact.