Abstract:
Reinforced concrete (RC) bridges are considered as the most important node
for the transportation networks which play very crucial role in sustainable
economic development of any nation. However, performance of reinforced
concrete bridge with ordinary rebar under multiple hazards is found to be
deteriorated severely. In order to maintain the performance of the bridge over
a threshold value, regular inspection and maintenance actions are required to
ensure their continuous service leading to higher lifetime cost. In addition to
the increase in lifetime cost, the inspection and maintenance activities may also
tremendously raise the indirect costs to the users due to traffic delays and loss
of productivity. Furthermore, the inspection and maintenance activities may
also hinder the continuous traffic movement over the bridge and the
consequences in negative impact on environment and social life. Although,
use of stainless steel rebar in constructing RC girder will increase construction
cost, however, it will reduce the necessity of inspection and repair activities
leading to lower lifetime cost. The higher construction cost of SS-RC bridge
will be completely outweighed by incentives obtained from the lower repair
and maintenance costs after a certain time referred as pay-off time (tpay-off) for
stainless steel reinforcement economic viability which primarily depends on
severity of airborne chloride hazard, price of SS rebar, and design service life
of the bridge. The key purpose of this study is to determine tpay-off for SS rebar
economic viability by determining the time required to obtain identical life
cycle cost (LCC) value of SS- and CS-RC bridges. To fulfil this objective, two
holistic flowcharts were developed to determine tpay-off for SS rebar cost
efficiency. Furthermore, the proposed approach was illustrated using an RC
bridge girder considering different coastal marine environments in 20 cities in Japan and the variation in SS price. The findings will assist transportation officials in deciding on selecting rebar type and cost of SS rebar to construct sustainable bridge with a nominal lifetime cost.
