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BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram

ForestValue JC2021 – WoodLCC – Enhanced Life-Cycle-Costing in wood construction by novel methods for service life planning

Alternative title: ForestValue JC2021 – WoodLCC - Forbedrede livsløpskostnader for trekonstruksjoner ved hjelp av nye metoder for levetidsplanlegging

Awarded: NOK 3.0 mill.

Under the 2014 EU procurement directive, a contract must be awarded based on the most economically advantageous tender. Currently, Life Cycle Cost (LCC) user software is employing simplified default service life estimates, especially for wood products in exterior applications, which in turn can lead to wrong decisions and negative economic and environmental impacts. We hypothesise that: (1) improved service life input data will enable more precise and robust LCC for wood-based products, resulting in more precise quantification economic and environmental impact, (2) LCC finds common acceptance only if reliable input data are available and complemented with knowledge about user expectations. Therefore, a holistic approach will be used to integrate service life data in LCC analysis instruments. The main objective of WoodLCC, is robust and precise Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC) based on input from models for detailed service life performance for wooden components and buildings. WoodLCC has brought together a strong interdisciplinary and international consortium comprising experts from across Europe in LCC, social science, engineering science, building physics, wood material science, service life modelling, mycology, and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Under previous national and European funding instruments surveys, databases and models related to this topic have emerged. The time is now ready to bring this together to create pan-European impact and provide an approach to support the deployment of more robust and precise LCC analyses, i.e., the WoodLCC data platform. WoodLCC will therefore utilise, but not repeat, results from previous ForestValue, EU and national projects, e.g., CLICKdesign (ForestValue), PerformWOOD (EU FP7) and ClimateLife (RCN). We have reached the midway point of the project, and it is noteworthy that the project is progressing satisfactorily overall. The Norwegian partner is demonstrating commendable performance, and the Norwegian industry partners are actively engaged in making substantive contributions. Norconsult Informasjonssystemer AS, has provided the project with their existing Life Cycle Cost (LCC) tool and price data, offering valuable insights for model development. Sweco As, is providing substantial support through the provision of case studies. Norway has hosted one of the physical Project Management meetings on May 9-10, 2023, in Oslo. NIBIO is following to the outlined plan for the execution and dissemination of an international survey. NTI has significant advancements in the database structure and the Excel model.

The primary progress beyond the state-of-the-art in WoodLCC is enabling input data for more robust and precise LCC analyses for wooden components and buildings. This will be achieved by the input from novel models for detailed service life prediction data, experimental studies, user preference survey, best practices related to correct design, maintenance action and inspections frequency. The main outcomes from the novel WoodLCC data platform (Figure 5) will contain not only reference service life estimates as direct input to LCC but also realistic maintenance intervals, user preference categorisation incl. the respective limit states, estimated service life of modern building materials, tailor-made risk assessment for moisture and demo plugin for the BIM software. This will result as a pioneer in the timber construction paradigm of Realistic Service Life Scenario (RSLS). This will be achieved by three implementation schemes: (1) Evaluation of the reliability of available service life data and research-driven filling of existing gaps (e.g., effect of design imperfections and modern building solutions) by more appropriate reference values (2) Customization of previous innovative performance specification models for determination of the estimated service life as well as maintenance scheduling based on user preferences (3) Integration of the innovative WoodLCC data platform with a BIM demo software solution combined with other numerical modelling

Funding scheme:

BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram