Hi Christopher,
First off, I am not an engineer but have been a structural technician for 27 years now, coupled with ongoing research and advocacy for sustainable design. Lately I have been involved with developing best practice for Whole Building LCA and integration into our existing process.
The one area that I have consistently NOT seen research on is the re-use of structural steel framing members. Specifically, we cannot develop a market within the Circular Economy for steel framing coming out of buildings as they are demolished without code compliant testing methods. Subsequently, there is little incentive to develop Design for Deconstruction protocols and the idea of circularity within that market grinds to a halt.
Reusing framing in renovation design seems fairly robust and of course recycling is always an option but a lot of energy could be saved if we had an accurate, simple, inexpensive testing method that could be widely distributed.
Best of luck on whatever research you decide on.
Respectfully,
Patrick Doss-Smith