Keywords: structural work, precast concrete member, transportation, carbon dioxide emission, apartment building, in-situ production.

The use of precast concrete (PC) members in structural work requires a transportation stage since the members are manufactured in a plant. This stage is absent in the existing in-situ cast concrete method, which is one of the causes that increases the cost of PC method compared to the reinforced concrete (RC) method. In addition, the volume and quantities of PC members are large requiring repetitive transportation and it generates a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide at this stage.

If the PC members are produced on site to mitigate the drawback of the PC structure, the general expenses required for the transportation and the operation of a PC plant as well as the depreciation cost can be cut down. This implies that approximately 7~10% of production and transportation costs can be reduced and a decrease in carbon dioxide emission arising from the omission of a transportation stage can be expected [1].

Above all, the carbon dioxide emission based on the transportation of the existing PC method shall be calculated to assess the carbon dioxide reduction when the transportation stage is skipped. Therefore, this paper calculates the carbon dioxide emission based on the transportation of PC members. Therefore, this paper focuses on the carbon dioxide emission during the transportation of PC members before the analysis of the carbon dioxide reduction effects when the transportation stage is skipped are analyzed. Its results are as the follows:

1. A process to calculate the carbon dioxide emission based on the transportation of PC members is suggested.
2. A member list considering the installation procedure of PC members is created and a process to calculate the number trailers required is presented.
3. The carbon dioxide emission when transporting the PC members is calculated by selecting a case study.

It is assumed that PC members are loaded on the trailer based on the installation procedure when calculating the number of trailers required. Here, the installation procedure of PC members retains the flexibility to partially change the priority of installing the members for the same floor. If this process is supplemented to draw out the optimal combination of members by changing the installation priority, the number of trailers required will decrease and it is expected that the carbon dioxide emission will be reduced.

The result of this study can be used as the base information for studies for calculating the total carbon dioxide emission when the PC construction method is applied. Also, when there is enough space on the construction site to manufacture the PC members, the studies can be developed to estimate the carbon dioxide reduction effect. This can cut down the carbon dioxide emitted arising from the transportation, enabling a more environmentally-friendly construction.

1

Korea Society of Architectural Hybrid System, "Precast Concrete", Kimoondang, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2007.

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