Title:
System Dynamics Model for Sustainable Cement and Concrete: Novel Tool for Policy Analysis
Author(s):
Moncef Nehdi, Rashid Rehan, and Slobodan P. Simonovic
Publication:
Materials Journal
Volume:
101
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
216-225
Keywords:
analysis; blended cements; concrete; modeling; sustainability
DOI:
10.14359/13117
Date:
5/1/2004
Abstract:
t has long been recognized that the cement industry is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions and that resorting to high-volume replacement of portland cement with supplementary cementitious materials is the most promising measure for the industry to meet its environmental obligations. Indeed, such a practice offers immense benefits not only with regard to CO2 emission savings, but it also increases the durability of concrete infrastructure and uses large amounts of waste materials. Forecasting how such a practice will affect cement industry CO2 emissions in the future, however, is often based on qualitative estimates that are linear and do not account for the system complexity of the problem. Clearly, there is a lack of a reliable policy-making/testing tool in this area that allows us to answer what if”-type questions. This research is a pioneering application of System Dynamics modeling, a feedback-based, object-oriented modeling paradigm, to create a novel rational model that departs from current approaches used in modeling CO2 emissions of cement production. The proposed model allows the user to test a wide variety of scenarios; its flexible architecture permits coupling it with general economic or service life models, and its modular nature allows expanding its boundaries to include other facets of the holistic CO2 emissions problem.