Life Cycle Cost and Life Cycle Assessment of Composite Bridge with Flat and Corrugated Webs

Journal article, 2023

To satisfy the sustainability criteria, a bridge design must be economically viable during its entire service life with a minimal impact on the environment. While stainless steel is known for its excellent life cycle performance, its high cost prevents it from being used in bridges to a larger extent. This study evaluates a new design solution that takes advantage of using corrugated web in bridge girders to overcome this issue. Three design concepts are evaluated for a three-span case-study bridge. These include a bridge with carbon steel flat web, stainless steel flat web, and stainless-steel corrugated web girders. Each design is optimized using a genetic algorithm. The three optimal solutions are then evaluated in terms of investment costs, life cycle costs (LCC) and life cycle impact. The results show that the investment costs in a flat web girder bridge increase by 27% when stainless steel is used instead of C-Mn (carbon) steel. However, this increase is only 10% when corrugated web girders are used. On the other hand, the LCC savings increase from 6% to 18% for corrugated web girders. Finally, the use of corrugated web in stainless steel leads to a reduction in the climate impacts of up to 32% compared to carbon steel for the studied bridge.