BIMtopia

Sage Crosby

Link to Design Journal
Sage Crosby
Journal Entry For
Module 8 - Share Your Design
ACC Folder Link
https://acc.autodesk.com/docs/files/projects/7a6d9404-5c50-4d49-acbd-cf67d7302936?folderUrn=urn%3Aadsk.wipprod%3Afs.folder%3Aco.C_vjBzbpSn6XYUJzkKChQQ&viewModel=detail&moduleId=folders

Sustainable Building (SuBu) Tool

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Overview

This is a design assistant tool to aid in the design of a structural framing system using sustainability metrics. It first creates a structural framing system based on dimensions the user inputs. Then, it calculates the embodied carbon of the structure (including only the impacts from the material and excluding transport and construction/demolition) based on the material (steel, concrete, or timber) and the weight of the structural framing system. It also calculates the surface area-to-volume ratio as a proxy for energy efficiency based on the dimensions of the structure.

The inputs are:

  • the height, length, and width of the structure (in feet);
  • the floor-to-floor height (in feet);
  • the maximum beam spacing in both directions (in feet);
  • the number of beams in the beam systems;
  • the material of the framing system; and
  • the specific structural columns and beams.

Note: Structural system elements must all be the same material. In choosing the material of the framing system, 0 corresponds to steel, 1 to reinforced concrete, and 2 to timber.

The outputs are:

  • the embodied carbon based on the size and weight of the structural elements and reported in kg CO2-e and
  • the surface area-to-volume ratio reported as a percentage.

Note: Embodied carbon values per kg of material were taken from data table S3 of the research article “Whole-life embodied carbon in multistory buildings” by Hart, J. et al.

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Teaser Images

Inputs and results for a steel structural framing system
Inputs and results for a steel structural framing system
Inputs and results for a timber structural framing system
Inputs and results for a timber structural framing system
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Video Demo

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Additional Information

For this tool, I used most of the same node logic from the modeling a rectangular building frame example to establish the geometry for the structure.

Full node logic
Full node logic
Inputs and some of the building geometry node logic
Inputs and some of the building geometry node logic
The rest of the building geometry node logic
The rest of the building geometry node logic
Node logic to calculate total volume of material in the structural elements
Node logic to calculate total volume of material in the structural elements

The total volume of the structural materials is converted to a total weight, which is then used to calculate the embodied carbon of the structure based on embodied carbon per kg of material taken from data table S3 of the research article “Whole-life embodied carbon in multistory buildings” by Hart, J. et al.

Node logic to calculate the embodied carbon of the structure from the volume
Node logic to calculate the embodied carbon of the structure from the volume

Finally, the height, width, and length of the building are used to calculate the surface area and volume of the building.

Node logic to calculate the surface area-to-volume ratio
Node logic to calculate the surface area-to-volume ratio