A fuzzy expert system for elemental life cycle estimate

The life cycle costing is a key economic analysis tool for sustainable construction. The design for sustainable billings must consider the long-term performance of projects. The lack of reliable historical data, especially for new building materials, is the main problem for life cycles estimate of building elements in PPP/PFI projects. The objective of this research is to develop a fuzzy expert system to estimate the life cycles of building elements at the strategic design stage. A case study was presented to demonstrate the fuzzy rule based system and its implication to estimate the life cycle of a building element - floor finishes. The model is easy-to-use in practice and the method can be applied to other building elements in terms of life cycle estimate.