Under the supervision of Tassedda Boukherroub and Jean-François Audy, student Félix Veillette has developed a decision-making tool to support demolition projects. Discover the summary of their work.
Résumé
Given that the construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) sector is one of the world’s largest generators of greenhouse gases, and that 66.58% of the materials generated in Quebec are sent to landfills, building deconstruction is a circular economy strategy that is increasingly emerging as an alternative to demolition. However, carrying out deconstruction projects requires rigorous and detailed planning. It quickly becomes complex to analyze all possible scenarios to maximize material reuse rates, minimize overall costs, or reduce the duration of a deconstruction project.
The main objective of this study is to design a decision-support tool that enables decision-makers to plan a deconstruction project in advance and identify the ideal scenario for carrying out the project according to their needs and constraints (maximizing the material reuse rate, minimizing total costs, ensuring workforce availability, etc.). To achieve this, a new multi-objective mathematical optimization model was proposed.
Analysis of the results obtained based on a realistic case study inspired by demolition projects carried out in the Gaspé region demonstrated that knowledge of the materials present in buildings—such as their type and volume—is critical information, as it can significantly influence the costs and duration of a demolition project. Another important aspect that was raised is the importance of having a clear understanding of the duration of each activity required to carry out a demolition project. This information would be the “Holy Grail” according to some CRD contractors. Finally, tests on the increase in landfill costs determined that landfill costs would need to nearly double for the model not to choose building demolition when the objective is to minimize project duration.
