Structural strengthening and sustainability improvements of existing buildings – A case study

In Sweden, a large share of residential buildings was built more than 50 years ago. Consequently, old materials, poor maintenance, and corrosion can affect the structural performance of these buildings. Additionally, these buildings do not meet the latest energy efficiency and Eurocode regulations. Building retrofits can improve structural strength and resident safety, as well as the energy efficiency of the buildings. Common retrofitting methods are unsustainable in terms of costs, duration, and disruptions to resident’s lives. A sustainable method for structural and energy upgrades is needed in order to retrofit such kind of structures in an efficient way. This master thesis aims to identify an innovative structural and energy retrofitting solution for reinforced concrete buildings that are reaching the end of their service life as well as to provide an environmental impact assessment of this whole process. A multi-family building built in 1972 in Ronneby, Sweden, with reinforced concrete load-bearing walls and slabs was considered as a case study. An integrated retrofitting strategy based on an addition of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, insulation, and claddings to the external walls to increase the horizontal load-bearing capacity and energy efficiency of the building was applied in this study. Steel tubes and fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) are used to increase the load-bearing capacity of the internal load-bearing walls and slab compared to the original ones, mostly for vertical loads. For the structural analysis based on the Eurocode regulations, the software RFEM was used to model and analyze the building before and after retrofitting. In addition to that, dynamic thermal simulation was performed with VIP-Energy software to analyze the service life energy consumption before and after retrofitting of the building. Life cycle assessment following the European standard SS-EN 15978 was used to assess the environmental impacts including global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP). The environmental impact of the existing building was compared with the retrofitted case, during a 50-year service life. The results show that after the retrofitting in the load-bearing walls, the internal shear forces induced by wind loads decreased by 38%. Also, the load-bearing capacity of the slabs was increased by 350% in the critical areas. Regarding GWP, AP and EP all decreased by 30% in the retrofitted case. The results indicate that by retrofitting the building, structural performance and safety increase, and moreover the environmental impact of the building is minimized.