This report presents the findings of an investigation into the relationship between the seismic performance of suspended ceilings and the environmental load during the manufacturing phase.
There is a trade-off relationship with environmental impact during manufacturing and seismic performance. Methods to improve seismic performance often involve increasing the quantity of building materials, which in turn raises the environmental impact during the manufacturing and construction phases. Furthermore, unlike structural members, non-structural components are not strictly regulated in detail by seismic design codes. Therefore, if design decisions prioritize only the reduction of environmental impact during manufacturing and construction, there is a risk that non-structural components with low seismic performance may be preferentially adopted.
On the other hand, recent major earthquakes have revealed cases where structural members remained intact while non-structural components such as ceilings sustained damage. Even if the damage is partial, ceilings may be entirely replaced during repairs due to aesthetic considerations. In such cases, focusing solely on the ceiling, the environmental impact from demolition and reinstallation may exceed that of the initial construction.
In other words, enhancing the seismic performance of non-structural components at the time of new construction may help reduce accidental earthquake damage during the building’s lifespan, thereby contributing to the reduction of environmental impact throughout the building’s life cycle.
This study aims to develop an evaluation method for assessing the impact of improving the seismic performance of non-structural components on the environmental load generated throughout the building’s life cycle, including earthquake damage and subsequent repairs. This study focuses on suspended ceilings and quantitatively evaluates the impact of enhancing their seismic performance on environmental load through loading experiments. The results indicated that the additional CO₂ emissions generated by repair work exceeded the differences in CO₂ emissions among the test specimens during the manufacturing phase.