ABSTRACT Reinforced concrete buildings should be optimized in order to increase their structural efficiency and decrease the environmental impact of building construction. The current paper discusses the role of beam dimension optimization in improving the sustainability performance of reinforced concrete systems. A multistory building was developed to determine the suitability of different beam configurations using structural analyses and life cycle assessment. Embodied carbon and energy were assessed in terms of production, construction, and end‐of‐life. The findings showed that geometrically optimized beam elements lower the embodied carbon and embodied energy by up to 24% and 21%, respectively, compared to the control design, mainly the subset of a thin concrete volume. However, reduced beam cross‐sections increased the proportionate input of steel, which explains the importance of balanced use of materials. In general, the results show that at the early stages of beam design, a sustainable approach can be applied to reduce environmental footprints whilst maintaining code compliance when designing a building.
Almulhim et al. (Mon,) studied this question.