ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDY DUE TO INCREASED STRENGTH OF CONCRETE IN COLUMNS PRODUCTION SUBJECT TO SMALL LOADS OF COMPRESSION

Abstract

The use of concrete with strengths up to conventional allows the construction of structural elements with greater durability due to their characteristics. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts due to increased strength of concrete in the design and execution of columns subject to small loads of compression. Thus, the columns were dimensioned with 1000 kN loading pattern, 3.2 meters height and square cross section. It was analyzed the design of this section, execution cost for concrete with compression strength of the concrete (fck) ranging from 20 MPa to 50 MPa, cement consumption and CO2 emission associated with cement and steel consumption per structural element. The results showed that, taking the dimensioned column with C25 concrete as a reference, with increasing compressive strength of the concrete column, is possible to gain a reduction of the area occupied up to 45%, decreasing costs by up to 18% and reducing damage caused to the environment related to the consumption of cement and steel, because the columns dimensioned with concrete with strengths up to conventional until C45 had lower CO2 emission associated with cement and steel per structural element than those with the scaled reference concrete. Keywords: economic viability, useful area gain, durability, sustainability.