CICE 2010 - The 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering September 27-29, 2010, Beijing, China

Composite Decks and Sustainable Development: a Case Study

Monssef Drissi-Habti (monssef.drissi@lcpc.fr), Xavier Chapeleau & Sbastien Courne LCPC, Route de Bouaye, 44341 Bouguenais, France

ABSTRACT Composite materials, based on glass fibers are promising candidates for civil engineering and building applications. Sustainable development issues are of prime importance worldwide. Therefore, new structures made out of new materials as well more conventional materials should be analyzed to provide more precise data about greenhouse gas release. In this work, a short-span bridge deck is used as a case study. Three different cases are considered: a reinforced concrete deck, a steel deck and a composite deck. The three cases are discussed regarding carbon dioxide release. KEY WORDS

1 INTRODUCTION
Composite materials have been used extensively in the aerospace industry in large part due to their high strength to weight and high stiffness to weight ratios. In the electrical and marine industries, the lightweight and non-corrosive properties of composite materials have encouraged use, generally in small structures. For industries that do not place a great importance on material weight or corrosion, there is little justification for the added cost of composite materials. However, recent developments in efficient manufacturing technologies, which is the case of pultrusion, the wide use of glass fibers and the growing body of research data, are boosting the integration of large-scale composite structures into civil, construction and off-shoring applications. In civil engineering, highway bridge systems have been among the first structures to incorporate composite materials. Numerous bridge deck designs have been proposed, developed and tested, mainly in the US, Japan, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK, Danmark and Spain. Some recent composite bridge designs have not only used composite deck systems but also employ composite spanning members. Composite materials can therefore be competitive alternatives for structural applications in civil engineering. Owing to the extensive importance of recent trends worldwide related to sustainable development issues, this article is an attempt to evaluate the environmental impact of using composite structures. This work is based on a real project that was completed in France (Saint Cadarec bridge, Ctes dArmor, FRANCE) in which we considered the hypothesis of using a composite deck. The profile that was used for the calculation is the one patented by Martin Marietta Composites (Raleigh, NC, USA). It is the same one now in-service in numerous bridges throughout the USA.

2
2.1

DEFININITIONS
Functional Unit

The functional unit of the present work is the use of pultruded composite materials as structural decks of Saint Cadarec Bridge. 2.2 Description of the deck of St Cadarec Bridge The bridge is made of 2 sections. Three parts: 28m, 34m and 28m. Each section is carrying 2 lanes of traffic and a third lane devoted to emergency stopping. The deck consists of steel and concrete. A concrete-made slab supported by double-beam steel columns is used for carrying the lanes. Description of the composite deck.
Table 1 Characteristics of Duraspan 766 Thickness 195 mm Dimension Weight Allowed span-distance 3,05 m 2,44 - 3,05 m 93 kg/m2

The composite materials deck used in this bridge is the profile DURASPAN 766, produced by Martin Marietta Composites and Creative Pultrusions Inc., and is basically the same one that is already used for many bridges in USA. A view of this profile is shown in Figure 1, whereas the characteristics are listed in Table 1. The profile is obtained by pultrusion, starting with continuous glass fibers and a thermosetting matrix (epoxy).

Figure 1 Schematic of the DuraSpan deck panel

L. Ye et al. (eds.), Advances in FRP Composites in Civil Engineering Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering

Figure 2 shows the steps that are taken into account when conducting the preliminary environmental analysis of the composite deck of the St Cadarec bridge. The system takes into account the fabrication process of glass fibers, the epoxy matrix, the pultruded deck profile and the transport of the deck to the final location. The recycling of the deck is not treated in the present study.

bridge. Calculations are based on a weight of 93 kg per m2 of composite deck.

Table 2 Indicator of greenhouse impact of the composite constituents Used quantity (kg) Glass fiber1 Epoxy resin
1 2
2

Constituent

Carbon equivalent (kg pour 1kg of product) 0,58 2,3248 Total

Total carbon equivalent (kg Ceq.) 79772,04 120793,82 200565,86

137538 51958,8

f r

=2.6g/cm3 =1.2g/cm3

2.4.2

Pultrusion

Figure 2 System boundaries

2.3

Flux and environmental impacts

In the present work, the following gas were taken into consideration in the environmental study: CO2, CH4, N2O, NOx, ). The environmental impact of composite constituents (glass fibers and epoxy resin), the pultrusion process and transport are evaluated using the indicator of greenhouse gas release over 100 years. 2.4 2.4.1 Environmental effects Composite constituents

Pultrusion is a composite process route known as being highly energy-consuming. Heat is necessary for both curing and cleaning the molds. These two operations are mainly responsible for greenhouse gas emission. In the present study, the shape of the DURASPAN 766 profile requires the fabrication of 60 panels, 3m-large and 11.32m-long, that approximately corresponds to a 680m profile. The relative estimated production time is 57 hours. Table 3 shows the emission of greenhouse gas resulting from the pultrusion process.
Table 3 Greenhouse gas impact indicator of the pultrusion process Used quantity Electricity consumption Acetone 1140 kW 3790 kg Carbon Equivalent 0,023 2,33 Total Total carbon equivalent 26 2274 2300

Glass fiber reinforcement production is part of the glass industry, known for its high energy-consumption and carbon dioxide-emission release. According to Ademe (French Environment and Energy Management Agency), the indicator of greenhouse gas emission of glass fibers is 580 kg carbon equivalent (C eq.) per ton of product. The process route of the epoxy resin is relatively complex and the basic constituents are mainly coming from the oil industry, thus known as generating a high quantity of greenhouse gas. The indicator of greenhouse gas pertaining to the production of epoxy resin is approximately 2.33 kg of carbon equivalent per kilogram of liquid epoxy resin produced. This value has been reported by the European Association of Plastic Producers (APME, Plastics Europe). Considering 55% as fibers volume fraction in the composite, Table 2 shows the results of the calculation of the indicator of the greenhouse impact of the composite material used in the case of the deck of the St Cadarec

Calculations have been carried out considering a pultrusion speed of 20cm/min and a mean consumption of electrical power of 20kW/h (source: DFC Company, Creil, FRANCE). In France, 1 kWh corresponds to an emission of 0,023 kg C eq. (Source : ADEME). In the case of acetone, an average value of 2% of the total composite weight is considered necessary for the composite production and this value is therefore introduced in the calculation. Following the Association of European Plastics, the production of 1 kg of acetone is responsible of 0.6kg of greenhouse gas emission, C eq. 2.4.3 Shipping contribution Table 4 shows the greenhouse gas release following roadshipping of the products needed to fabricate the deck profile, according to the system considered. Calculations are conducted taking into account the maximum truck load-carrying capacity, regulated by the corresponding French Authority. Calculations are based on ADEMEs

September 2729, 2010, Beijing, China

75 Table 6 Impact indicator of greenhouse gas emission of steel and concrete Material Steel1 Concrete
1 2
B

inputs (Emissions Factors Guide, 2007) that take into account the part pertaining to the distance over which trucks are driving empty. This distance is corresponds to 20% of the total shipping distance. Results also include the part of greenhouse gas release related to the fabrication of trucks (per km of shipping).
Table 4 Impact indicators of greenhouse gas release related to shipping of composite constituents and profiles Products shipped Glass fibers Epoxy resin Composite profile Quantity (kg) 137,5 52,0 189,5 Total

Quantity (kg) 351894 2495500

C eq. (kg C eq. per ton) 397 235

Total (kg C eq.) 139702 586443

3 A =7850kg/m

=2300kg/m3

Total emissions (kg C eq.)

1477 1586 859 3922

RESULTS

Adding the results of the above-mentioned emissions, the overall environmental impact, related to the composite deck of St Cadarec bridge is 758 tons of CO2. This corresponds to 372 kg of CO2 per m2 of composite profile.
Table 5 Total greenhouse gas release Emission per product Glass fibers Resin Pultrusion Shipping Total Emission (kg C eq.) 79772 120794 2301 3922 206789 Emission (kg CO2 eq.) 292205 442468 8426 14365 757464 Part (%) 39 58 1 2 100

used steel). However, it should be noted that final recycling is not taken into account in the present study, neither in the case of steel, nor in the case of composite decks. Furthermore, the steel used in the case of the deck is considered partly coming from recycling. Indeed, greenhouse gas release must take into account the percent of recycling in the production of steel, which is 43% worldwide. The impact indicator of greenhouse gas emission is therefore 573 kg C eq. per ton of refined steel and 164 kg C eq. per ton of recycled steel. For steel containing 43% of recycled material, the corresponding greenhouse gas emission is 397 kg C eq. per ton (Source: the International Iron and Steel Institute.

Given the results of Table 5, it follows that the production of the composite constituents represents 97% of greenhouse gas release. This result is not surprising knowing that the production of glass fibers, as well as epoxy resin, are highly energy-consuming, whereas pultrusion is merely a transforming industry that needs much lower energy. To be able to conduct a preliminary comparative study of the environmental impact following the use of composite materials instead conventional ones, the analysis depicted above should be also conducted when using steel and concrete as deck constitutive materials. In such a comparison, only the fabrication of the deck is considered. Table 6 shows the values of the impact indicator of greenhouse gas release for a deck made out of steel and concrete. If a steel deck is considered, then greenhouse gas release depends on the process route that led to its production (either refining mined products or recycling

Figure 3 Greenhouse gas release per ton of products

In the case of a concrete deck, the indicator of the impact of greenhouse gas emission considered is 235 kg C eq. per ton of concrete, according to ADEME. This value is including greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption following the process route, the nonenergetic consumption and the one linked to the degradation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3 CaO + CO2). Figure 3 shows that 1 ton of composite is releasing more greenhouse gas than a ton of steel or concrete. However, it is worthwhile to note that the quantities of materials needed to build the deck of St Cadared bridge are much less important for composites than in the case of concrete or steel (Tab. 7). Taking into account the quantities of materials that are needed to achieve the deck of St Cadarec bridge, Figure 4 shows that greenhouse gas release following the use of composite are slightly higher than in the case

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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering

Table 7 Comparison of the deck weight depending on the constitutive materials Matrial Deck weight (in Tons) Steel 351,9 Concrete 2495,5 Composite 189,5

of steel, but much less than in the case of concrete. However, it should be noted that neither the shipping of steel was taken into account in the calculations, nor the maintenance operations such as painting for corrosionprotection. In the special case of painting, high levels of greenhouse gas release can be recorded due to solvent production. Finally, the present study shows that if upfront cost only has to be considered, construction using composites or steel results in the same greenhouse gas release. If, for example, the maintenance over 10 years exploitation is also considered, then the use of composites as a deck constitutive materials provides obviously more benefit.

of the St Cadarec bridge. It shows that the environmental impact related to a composite-made deck is on the same level as when using steel. In the case of a concrete deck, not only is this solution the highest one in terms of weight, but greenhouse gas release is nearly 2 times higher than in the previous one, using composite or steel. It should be noted however that when Fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials are used, they provide excellent strength-to-weight ratio and can be fabricated for oncommand properties. Composite materials can strengthen bridges without any reduction of vertical clearance, and they can be applied in severe exposure environments that may have resulted in the deterioration of the original structure. Also, composite-made decks can be used to enhance the life of girder-system bridges, due to their low dead load that permits an increase in live-load carrying capacity. Composite materials are highly corrosion-resistant and this is of a prime importance in comparison to either steel and/or steel-reinforced structures. These aspects should become prevalent in the near future when not only upfront cost is considered, but also with maintenance over a ten-year period. For the reasons summarized above, the use of composites in civil engineering should be promoted and a deeper analysis of the life cycle should be implemented.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been conducted in the framework of decid 2 project (French Ministry of Industry funded project). It is a part of the 2 Long-Term Research Operations of LCPC : COMPOSI-GeC and EPEES.

Figure 4 Comparison of greenhouse gas release depending on the constitutive materials, in the case of a bridge deck

REFERENCES 4 CONCLUSION
In this article, a preliminary study related to the environmental effect of using composite materials as bridge decks was presented. The calculations show that greenhouse gas release, following composite constituents are prevailing in comparison to shipping and pultrusion. This can be explained when keeping in mind that glass production (in the case of glass fibers) and the chemical industry (in the case of epoxy resin), are among the main energy-consuming and greenhouse gas releasing industries. A comparative study has been conducted for the deck
DuraSpan Bridge Decks by Martin Marietta Composites (w3.martinmarietta.com/Products/duraspan.asp). Guide des facteurs dmissions 2007, Bilan Carbone Entreprises et Collectivits, ADEME (Agence De lEnvironnement et de la Matrise de l'Energie, France). Mmento des Dcideurs 2003, Mission Interministrielle de leffet de serre, France. www.ecologie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/memento.pdf. Resin Epoxy, Eco profiles: life-cycle analysis, APME (Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe). www.plasticseurope.org. International Iron and Steel Institute, World Steel Life Cycle Inventory. www.worldsteel.org.