A Comparative Study of Life Cycle Cost and Carbon Emission of Precast and Cast-in Place Systems

Abstract

Construction industry plays a significant role in economic grow, and the industry will continue to grow with the economic expansion. However, the industry is known for its labor-intensive, and it could be responsible for more than half of the depletion of the world’s natural resources and for polluting the world with greenhouse gases generated from material extraction to all related construction activities. Therefore, the growth of the industry may also lead to an increase in pollution and the demand of construction materials and workers. In order to shorten construction time and address labor issues, developers have explored new systems of construction such as a precast system, which is believed to help save up to 50% of labor costs and reduce about 30% of construction time. However, in comparison of construction systems, construction costs are only upfront costs, and maintenance and repairing costs of each system should be included into life cycle cost analysis. This paper is to present a comparative study of risk-based life cycle cost and carbon emission between precast and cast-in place systems. In modelling life cycle costs, sensitivity analysis will be employed to incorporate uncertainty into the proposed model. The study also assesses the amount of carbon emissions using a coefficient method. The results of the study show the comparison of the LCC and carbon emissions between the two construction methods