Lifecycle cost assessment of high strength carbon and stainless steel girder bridges

Journal article

This paper addresses the lifecycle cost assessment of a steel girder bridge considering the material costs and maintenance activities along the bridge's lifecycle. A reference highway bridge case study is chosen. It was initially designed using carbon steel S355. Two more steel grades are included in the comparison: high strength carbon steel S460 and duplex stainless steel EN 1.4162. For each design option, fatigue appears to be the driving design criterion for the following critical welded details: transversal stiffeners, cope holes and full penetration butt welds in the flanges. In addition to ultimate limit state verifications, specific attention is therefore given to fatigue through the use of different verification methods: the well-known nominal stress method and the hot spot stress method. It is concluded that the net present value of the lifecycle cost of the stainless steel option is attractive compared to painted the carbon steel options.

Authors: Karabulut, B; Ferraz, G; Rossi, B

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
• Volume: 277
• Article number: 111460
• Publication date: 2020-10-23
• Acceptance date: 2020-09-28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111460
• EISSN: 1095-8630
• ISSN: 0301-4797
• Language: English
• Keywords: hot spot stress method; fatigue verification; bridge design; duplex stainless steel; comparative lifecycle cost assessment (LCCA); FFR