A process towards lifetime engineering in the 5th and 6th Framework Program of EU. Summary. 1. Cluster "Lifetime"

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1 A process towards lifetime engineering in the 5th and 6th Framework Program of EU Asko SARJA Dr. Tech. Research Professor Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT Building and Transport P.O.Box 1803 FIN VTT Finland Asko Sarja, born 1941, received his doctor of technology degree in 1979 at Helsinki University of Technology. He has worked in a design office, in the Waterways Administration, and since 1970 at the Technical Research Centre of Finland with the emphasis on structural engineering, concrete technology and lifetime engineering. Summary The research Cluster "Lifetime" of EU GROWTH Program of the Fifth Framework Program has an objective to contribute the process towards development of a consistent lifetime engineering technology of buildings and civil infrastructures. This cluster is consisting of five ongoing projects of the EU Growth program: Conlife, Investimmo, Licymin and Lifecon, each of these working on different sub-areas of the lifetime engineering. The integrated lifetime engineering aims at a lifetime quality, which mens, that the structures fulfil through the life cycle the requirements arising from human social conditions, economy, culture, and ecology. A Thematic Network "Lifetime: Lifetime Engineering of Buildings and Civil Infrastructures" is supporting the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the Cluster "Lifetime". The ideas of the lifetime engineering will be processed further in some parts of the Sixth Framework Program, especially in the Priority 3: Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowledge-based multifunctional materials, and new production processes and devices (NMP):(1.1.3.iii) "New production processes and devices", and Priority 6: Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems, Part "Ecobuildings". 1. Cluster "Lifetime" Cluster "LIFETIME: Life time design and management of civil infrastructures and buildings, is working with integration and systemasing the development of the lifetime engineering idea. This cluster started the work in 2001, and will continue until The cluster is consisting of five ongoing projects of the EU Growth program: 1. INVESTIMMO: A Decision Making Tool for Long-Term Efficient Investment Strategies in Housing Maintenance and Refurbishment. Co-ordinator: Dr. Dominique Caccavelli, CSTB, France 2. EUROLIFEFORM: A probabilistic approach for predicting the life cycle cost and performance of buildings and civil infrastructure. Co-ordinator: Prof. Phil Bamforth, Taylor Woodrow, UK 3. LIFECON: Life Cycle Management of Concrete Infrastructures for improved sustainability. Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Asko Sarja, VTT Building and Transport, Finland 4. LICYMIN: Life Cycle Environmental Impact in Mining. Co-ordinatoor: Prof. Dr. Sevket Durucan, ICSTM, UK 5. CONLIFE: Life-time prediction of high performance concrete with respect to durability. Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Setzer, Prof. Dr. Max J. Setzer, Universität Essen (DE) 1001

2 The objectives of the Cluster LIFETIME are: to integrate the knowledge of partners of these three projects for advancing the work and results of all projects to co-operate in similar tasks in order to avoid parallel overlapping work and parallel results to integrate the Information Networks through linking between these three projects to create and deliver a continuously updated database of produced models for later European exploitation and to produce an integrated and generic European Guide for Life Time Design and Management of Civil Infrastructures and Buildings in order to contribute the development process in practical application of Life Time Design and Management on different sub areas and by different owners. The Cluster has a common management, which is carried out by Management Group. The Management Group is consisting of Co-ordinators of the five projects. Each project will produce own results and deliverables on their focus areas. From these results, an editorial group under the guidance and control of Cluster management Group will produce a generic integrated report: European Guide for Life Time Design and Management of Civil Infrastructures and Buildings. A Thematic Network "Lifetime: Lifetime Engineering of Buildings and Civil Infrastructures" is supporting the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the Cluster "Lifetime". This Network is consisting of 93 partners from 29 countries and is planned to work in the years The overall objective of the LIFETIME Thematic Network is to contribute to European and world-wide development of a more sustainable built environment. The Network involves all key stakeholders of buildings and civil infrastructures, including mining, whose activities concern investment planning, design, facility management and maintenance, reuse and recycling. The aim is to help to activate on this issue national, European and even world-wide development processes, which will continue in a long perspective still after the Network. The objectives will be reached with world-wide discussions, information exchange and Workshop meetings between stakeholders. 2. Technical content of the Lifetime engineering development process 2.1 General The state and the condition development of the built environment in Europe are an economical, technical, cultural and environmental concern of increasing importance Buildings and civil and industrial infrastructures are of enormous importance in the modern European society. Infrastructures (including buildings) represent about 80 % of national property in European Societies. Operation (excluding traffic), maintenance, repair, modernisation and renewal of the infrastructure is consuming about 42 % of all energy, and producing about 40 % of all environmental burdens and wastes. The influence of business buildings on productivity of work of organisations, and on safety and health of people is important. Also huge number of buildings in Eastern Central Europe will urgently need effective maintenance and repair, which has to be planned for a long time span. European extractive industries provide the raw materials that are the essential components of civil and other industrial infrastructures. In order to maintain its competitiveness, the European extractive industries need to remain at the forefront of technology and adopt an integrated design and environmental management procedure throughout their operational lifetime. At the time being the design is mainly focused on the construction phase and the first use, and maintenance and repair are reactive. The need of maintenance and repair is not considered at the 1002

3 original design, and during use they are mostly realised at a very advanced stage of deterioration, causing huge investments in repair measures, or even the need of demolition. Lifetime engineering, which is the content of the "Lifetime" research Cluster, is an innovative idea and a realisation of this idea for solving the dilemma that currently exists between infrastructures as a very long-term product and short-term approach to design, management and maintenance planning. Lifetime engineering includes: - Lifetime investment planning and decision making - Integrated lifetime design - Lifetime principles in construction - Integrated lifetime management and maintenance planning - Modernisation, reuse, recycling and disposal, and - Integrated lifetime environmental impact assessment and - minimisation The projects will work otherwise independently, and have their own financing, internal management and reporting to EU Commission. Each project will produce own results and deliverables on their focus areas. From these results, an editorial group under the guidance and control of Cluster management Group will produce a generic integrated report: European Guide for Life Time Design and Management of Civil Infrastructures and Buildings. The integrated approach of lifetime engineering is basing on the technical and economic interpretation of the requirements of sustainable building, as presented in Table 1.The integrated lifetime engineering methodology concerns the development and use of technical performance parameters to guarantee, that the structures fulfil through the life cycle the requirements arising from human conditions, economy, cultural, social and ecological considerations. With the aid of lifetime engineering we thus can control and optimise the human conditions (safety, health and comfort), the monetary (financial) economy and the economy of the nature (ecology), and taking into account cultural and social needs. All planning and design optimisations are expanded into two economical levels: monetary economy and ecology, which means the economy of nature. The life cycle expenses are calculated into the present value or into annual costs by discounting the expenses from manufacture, construction, maintenance, repair, changes, modernisation, reuse, recycling and disposal. The monetary costs are treated as usual in current value calculations. The expenses of nature are the use of non-renewable natural resources: materials and energy, the production of air, water or soil pollution, and production of solid waste. Consequences of air pollution are health problems, inconvenience for people, ozone depletion and the global climatic change. The goal is to limit the natural expenses under the allowed values and to minimise them. 1003

4 Table1. Generic classified requirements of the structure [4, 5]. 1. Human requirements functionality in use safety health comfort 3. Cultural requirements building traditions life style business culture aesthetics architectural styles and trends imago 2. Economic requirements investment economy construction economy lifetime economy in: o operation o maintenance o repair o rehabilitation o renewal o demolition o recovery and reuse o disposal 4. Ecological requirements raw materials economy energy economy environmental burdens economy waste economy biodiversity 2.2 The long term process towards lifetime engineering There is a clear need for a uniform European approach for assessing, validating and operating Civil Infrastructures, Buildings and Industrial facilities with full consideration of all generic requirements, which are presented in Fig. 1.: The economic values embedded in buildings, civil and industrial infrastructures are utmost significant and the safe, reliable and economically and ecologically sound operation of these structures are at great need. Also huge number of buildings in Eastern Central Europe will urgently need effective maintenance and repair, which has to be planned for a long time span. Infrastructures, especially the production and transport structures, will be of major importance within current and future enlarged European Union, when a great amount of civil infrastructures of doubtful quality will be assimilated within the Union s transport system. This creates a need for adaptation of existing infrastructure and of construction of new infrastructure for along time span. European extractive industries provide the raw materials that are the essential components of civil and other industrial infrastructures. In order to maintain its competitiveness, the European extractive industries need to remain at the forefront of technology and adopt an integrated design and environmental management procedure throughout their operational lifetime. Considering the fragmented European construction industry it is of vital importance that a network addressing these issues is operating on a European and international level with full participation of the important key actors in the sector. The international networking is bounding together a large number of currently ongoing and planned national R&D programs and projects. 2.3 Content of the development Moving into lifetime technology means that all processes must be renewed. Furthermore, new methodologies and calculation methods must be adopted, e.g., from mathematics, physics, systems engineering, environmental science/engineering and other natural and engineering sciences. 1004

5 However, we have to keep in mind the need for strong systematics, transparency and simplicity of the design process and its methods in order to keep the multiple issues under control and to avoid excessive design work. The adoption of the new methods and processes will necessitate renewal of education and training of all stakeholders. New investmen planning and optimisation systems, methodologies and methods are serving as first phase of lifetime engineering. This issue is especially dealth with in the cluster project "INVESTIMMO" A new model of integrated life cycle design includes a framework for integrated structural life cycle design, a description of the design process and its phases, special lifetime design methods with regard to different aspects discussed above. The main phases in the model of integrated life cycle design process are: Analysis of the actual requirements, interpretation of the requirements into technical performance specifications of structures, creation of alternative structural solutions, life cycle analysis and preliminary optimisation of the alternatives, selection of the optimal solution between the alternatives and finally the detailed design of the selected structural system and its modules and components. The conceptual, creative design phase is very decisive in order to utilise the potential benefits of integrated design process effectively. Controlled and rational decision making when optimising multiple requirements with different metrics is possible through the application of systematics of multiple attribute optimisation and decision making. In detailed design phase, life cycle aspects rise needs for total performance over the life cycle, including durability design and design for mechanical and hygro-thermal long term performance. Lifetime oriented construction includes consideration of lifetime issues in all procurement models. Especially central role of lifetime engineering is included in specific lifetime procurement. This means, that the contractor is taking a responsibility on the construction phase, and on operation and maintenance of the building or infrastructural object for a certain time period, usually 15 to 30 years. This procurement type is used during last years increasingly especially in cases of large infrastructural objects like roads and airports, but is increasing also on the building sector, for example in case of communal buildings like schools etc.. The lifetime oriented construction rise needs also for long term partnerships between stakeholders, especially between contractors, designers and deliverers. This partnership allows long term development in business activities and in technical issues of product and production development. A predictive life time maintenance and management system called LIFECON will make it possible to change the facility maintenance, management and operation of civil infrastructures and buildings from a reactive approach into a predictive and performance based life cycle approach. This objective is concretised through an open and generic model of Integrated and Predictive Life cycle Maintenance and management planning System (LMS). This system description includes the framework, process, performance and service life models, condition assessment protocol model, as well as optimising and decision making methods for lifetime optimising MR&R (Maintenance, Repair, Rehabilitation) planning. Both Network (entire stock of objects) and object level are dealt with. This system is open, generic and predictive in its character; thus it can be applied for different kinds of structures and objects, and with different technical specifications. 1005

6 3. Lifetime issues in the Sixth Framework Program The ideas of the lifetime engineering will be processed further in some parts of the Sixth Framework Program, especially in the Priority 3: "Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowledge-based multifunctional materials, and new production processes and devices (NMP)":(1.1.3.iii) "New production processes and devices", and Priority 6: "Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems", Part "Ecobuildings". The activities to be carried out in this area are intended to help Europe achieve a critical mass of capacities needed to develop and exploit, especially for greater eco-efficiency and reduction of discharges of hazardous substances to the environment, leading-edge technologies for the knowledge-based products, services and manufacturing processes of the years to come. 4. Conclusions Application of life cycle principles is widening the scope of building and civil engineers to the extent that the entire working processes must be re-engineered. As a challenge for education and life long learning, new capabilities for applying the multiple calculation methods are needed. Concerning materials and structures, new basic knowledge will be needed especially regarding environmental impacts, hygrothermal behaviour, durability and service life of materials and structures in varying environments. Structural design methods that are capable of life cycle design, multiple analysis decision-making and optimisation will have to be further developed. Recycling design and technology demand further research in design systematics, recycling materials and structural engineering. The knowledge obtained will have to be put into practice through standards and practical guides. For practical application also IT software tools are needed. Relevant databases of data which are needed for these calculations will support the use of the lifetime engineering software. 5. References [1] Sarja, Asko, Bamforth, Phil, Caccavelli, Dominique, Durucan, Sevket. Cluster "Lifetime" Description [2] Life-time prediction of high performance concrete with respect to durability (CONLIFE). Project Co-ordinator: Prof. Dr. Max J. Setzer/ Ms. Susanne Palecki - Universität Essen (DE) [3] Probabilistic approach for prodicting life cycle costs and performancer of buildings and civil infrastructure (EUROLIFEFORM). C co-ordinated by Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltdoordinator: Prof. Phil Bamforth, Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltd [4] A decision-making tool for long-term efficient investment strategies in housing maintenance and refurbishment ( INVESTIMMO). Co-ordinator: Dr. Dominique Caccavelli, Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), France. [5] Life cycle assessment of mining projects for waste minimisation and long term control of rehabilitated sites (LICYMIN). Co-ordinator: Professor Sevket Durucan, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, UK. [6] Life Cycle Management of Concrete Infrastructures for improved sustainability LIFECON. Coordinator: Professor Asko Sarja, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). [7] Lifetime Engineering of Buildings and Civil Infrastructures (LIFETIME). Co-ordinator: Professor Asko Sarja, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). [8] The Sixth Framework Programme. Work Programme. EU Commission XII,