Stainless-Steel in Hisings-Bridge as an Alternative for Carbon Steel - Buckling Capacity and LCCA of Trapezoidal Box Girders Made of Stainless-Steel

Abstract

In addition to its comparatively low price, conventional carbon steel provides the bridge industry with several advantages such as high strength, lightweight, and recy clability, making it a preferable material in bridge engineering. On the other hand, carbon steel is highly susceptible to corrosion, which requires higher maintenance costs during its life cycle. Recently, the usage of stainless steel in the bridge industry became an issue for re search, its higher corrosion resistance reduces maintenance costs during the bridge life cycle. On the contrary, investment costs increase remarkably due to the expen sive alloying components used in stainless steel. Therefore, the bridge department at COWI wanted to investigate the efficiency of us ing Stainless steel in Hisings-bridge using life cycle cost analysis. Buckling capacities using duplex stainless-steel grade 1.4662 are calculated for the original cross-section and an optimized cross-section. The results are compared afterward using life cycle cost analysis. The investigation shows that saving in the material can be achieved using higher-strength stainless steel with an optimized cross-section. Life cycle cost analysis shows that profitability depends on stainless steel prices and the post-weld treatment cost.