Environmental Impact of Timber Concrete Composites: An Overview
摘要
Increased attention toward a sustainable built environment has driven the construction industry to utilize new materials such as bio-based materials and composites as an alternative to conventional materials. Timber concrete composite (TCC) structural members address performance challenges of timber construction, offering improved stiffness, sound insulation, fire resistance, and reduced deflection and floor vibration compared to timber elements. Moreover, TCC structures are lighter and have a lower carbon footprint than conventional reinforced concrete elements. Extensive research has been conducted to identify the structural and economic viabilities of TCC. Nevertheless, there is a demand for comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts of TCC. LCA method is currently being used as an effective tool for evaluating the environmental impacts of alternative building materials. In this study, a systematic investigation on peer-reviewed studies on LCA of TCC elements is performed. It is found that a holistic LCA or life cycle inventory (LCI) study of TCC is not available yet and the studies vary in scope, system boundaries, data sources and indicators in the LCA. The system boundary was set as cradle-to-gate in most studies due to a lack of sufficient data regarding the end-of-life phase. Particularly, there is limited information on the material disposal impacts that will occur some decades later, and the carbon storage potential of timber is often overlooked. In the future, additional studies need to be conducted to comprehensively assess the entire cradle-to-grave cycle to understand the potential environmental impacts of using TCC.