"New residential construction building and composite post and beam structure toward global warming mitigation"

Abstract

The construction industry has become one of the major sources of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, low carbon buildings have been assigned for reduction of human impact on the environment. The aim of this research is to decrease the CO2 effect from the building sector by eventually proposing a new structure for Malaysian construction with regard to the needs of this industry. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed to analyze the CO2 emission for the Malaysian residential single family house. Seven different materials or structures have been assessed and the result shows that timber prefabricated post and beam is the best choice due to releasing less CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. However, timber has become almost forgotten as building material for house builders in Malaysia in the last four decades. The alternative building scheme has been made by reinforced steel plate into wooden beam and column and timber wall (S8) to improve the building structure deficiency and load bearing while releasing less CO2 emissions in comparison to other buildings. New structure has been designed by steel plate sandwiched between wood members and held together with bolts in beam and post toward decreasing the percentage of improper design and to improve accuracy in the execution of timber structure. Thus, new scheme (S8) could be advised to house maker and government as a new policy to promote the sustainability in construction sector.