Component management for structural reuse

The construction industry is an important pillar of the global economy, putting significant pressure on resource consumption and environmental impacts. To relieve the burden, the concept of circular economy has recently been introduced to the construction industry. Component reuse represents a strategy with the highest potential for circularity, as it preserves the value of the structure to the greatest extent. Despite the potential, recycling remains the most prevalent circular strategy within the construction industry, resulting in many well-performed components being unnecessarily dismantled and destroyed. A key reason is the absence of reliable and user-friendly tools for evaluating components' reusability. To enhance the decision-making process and increase the reuse rate of components, this study proposes a BIM-based component management framework. The paper systematically discusses the inclusion, storage, usage, and display of the data that affects the component's reusability. The framework has been successfully applied to a bridge case study.