20.500.12556/DKUM-98936 Competitive ranges of timber, concrete, and steel beams based on cost optimization and sensitivity analysis, including CO2 emission costs This paper examines the competitive ranges of timber, steel, and reinforced concrete beams, determined using multi-parameter cost optimization that includes global warming costs (CO2 emissions) associated with beam production. Simply supported beams subjected to self-weight and uniform imposed loads were optimized using discrete mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP). The objective functions included material, energy, labor, and CO2 emission costs associated only with manufacturing. Concrete remains the most cost-effective material across nearly all configurations, with glulam and steel being 2.3 and 2.8 times more expensive, respectively. Sawn timber outperforms concrete (by 9.5%) only at short spans (7.5 m) and low loads (10 kN/m1). Environmentally, timber yields the lowest manufacturing footprint, while steel and concrete emit 3.0 and 1.8 times more CO2 than glulam. Currently, CO2 emission costs average just 3.8% of total costs. However, a sensitivity analysis shows that extreme carbon taxes break concrete’s monopoly, increasing its costs by up to 637.4% and making timber the cheapest option for low-to-medium loads. Concrete is resilient to material price shocks at larger scales but highly vulnerable to rising labor rates (up to a 66.3% increase). While current carbon pricing is too low to influence material selection, future substantial tax escalations will shift structural competitiveness toward timber. timber beams steel beams reinforced concrete beams cost optimization discrete optimization mixed-integer non-linear programming global warming costs CO2 emissions sensitivity analysis leseni tramovi jekleni tramovi ojačani betonski tramovi stroški globalnega segrevanja izpusti CO2 analize občutljivosti true false true MDPI Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings Članek v reviji 2026-07-20 10:44:10 2026-07-20 10:44:11 2026-07-21 03:10:01 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 33 str. issue 14, [article no.] 2867 Vol. 16 Jul. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2026-05-29 2026-07-16 2026-07-18 624:504.7 285391619 10.3390/buildings16142867 2075-5309 buildings-16-02867.pdf buildings-16-02867.pdf 1 9BFB75BD690232F68678DFA238DDB427 2951e905a0c38e8a78bc8d4b32d1edd2fa222da53acb3cae8c5c3af35c68bf4e 72ccdca8-8417-11f1-a07d-00155d580e34 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=208410 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/16/14/2867 1 2e42ee46-8417-11f1-a07d-00155d580e34 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=208408 Fakulteta za gradbeništvo, prometno inženirstvo in arhitekturo 0 0 0