Coupling Embodied Carbon and Seismic Performance in Outrigger-Braced Reinforced Concrete High-Rise Buildings: A Parametric Study to Indian Standards

Isha Anand Patel

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, P. P. Savani University, Surat, Gujarat, India.

Abstract

Decarbonisation of the built environment has moved the spotlight from operational to embodied carbon, yet the lateral systems that decide whether a tall building is feasible are seldom examined through a combined performance-and-carbon lens. This paper presents the choice of lateral system in a reinforced concrete (RC) high-rise that interacts with embodied carbon once both are held to Indian seismic-design provisions. A forty-storey (128 m) RC building in seismic Zone IV is analysed to IS 1893 (Part 1):2016, with the lateral system varied across three configurations: a core-only structure, a core stiffened by a single outrigger, and a core with two outriggers, and the binder varied across ordinary Portland cement, a 30% fly-ash blend, and a 50% ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) blend. Cradle-to-gate (A1–A3) embodied carbon is quantified for each of the nine resulting designs using material coefficients consistent with the ICE inventory. The single-outrigger optimum is located near mid-height (h_o/H ≈ 0.50), where it lowers roof drift by roughly 30% and brings the structure inside the IS 16700:2017 serviceability target that the core-only system violates. Because the outrigger allows a leaner primary structure, it reduces embodied carbon even after its own material is counted; paired with a 50% GGBS binder, the two-outrigger design cuts structural embodied carbon from 384 to 236 , a 38% saving while at the same time improving drift control. Lateral-system selection and binder choice therefore behave as complementary rather than competing decarbonisation levers, and the lowest-carbon design here is also the best-performing one.

Keywords: Embodied carbon, Outrigger system, Reinforced concrete high-rise, Seismic design, IS 1893:2016, Sustainable structural design

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