Building a User-Friendly LCI Prediction Model for Concrete Mixtures

Concrete is the corner stone of the construction industry and the second largest material being used after water. The growth of theconstruction industry and an increasing awareness of the environmental impact of human activity has accelerated thedevelopment of environment friendly solutions in concrete production and construction. Through the production of concrete andits constituents, varying amounts of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere. In this study, a user-friendly Life Cycle Impact (LCI)model for concrete was developed. The user-friendly LCI model for concrete was developed based on the literature, which can beused for a constituent comparative analysis. This study demonstrates the practicality of a user-friendly LCI model by comparingthe LCI of different concrete compositions that contain Fly Ash (FA) and Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA). Although thisstudy focused mainly on the environmental impact of FA and RCA, the model was designed to analyze the impact of anyconventional concrete mixture and a mixture with any combination of added or replaced constituents. The major benefit of thedeveloped user-friendly LCI model is that it is a simple model that can be used by practically anyone in the concrete constructionindustry to assess and evaluate the impact of any concrete mixtures. Providing the industry with a user-friendly model thatrequires little time can drastically benefit practitioners in better access to environment impact of different concrete mixtures.