Ahmed Hammad
University of Alberta, Canada
Title: Application of fuzzy TOPSIS for selecting most sustainable building wall material in United Arab Emirates
Biography
Biography: Ahmed Hammad
Abstract
During the design phase of any building facility, appropriate selection of construction materials is crucial for the success of the entire project. Poor choice of materials can lead to higher costs during construction, higher long-term operation and maintenance expenses, and even endangering humans and the surrounding environment. Since the three pillars of sustainability covers the economic, social, and environmental aspects, adoption of sustainability principles in decision making will ensure selecting of optimum construction materials. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of both selection of sustainable construction materials and available decision making models. After that, the paper presents a generic model to utilize fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) principles to compare four wall material alternatives in light of sustainability criteria using normalized fuzzy matrices. The proposed alternatives are: Traditional Block, Sandwich Block, Sandwich Panel and Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Panel (AACP). Several semi-structured interviews and meetings with industry experts representing material suppliers, engineering consultants and construction contractors in United Arab Emirates (UAE) took place during this research. These meetings provided six selection criteria under the three main sustainability categories, agreed-upon weight for each criteria, and evaluation of the four wall material alternatives. Results obtained from consulted experts presented Sandwich Panels as the most sustainable alternative. However, the developed model is generic and can be implemented on any construction project and the optimum selection will change according to the decision-makers’ opinions, concerns and preferences.