Assessing the efficacy of stainless steel for bridge deck reinforcement under uncertainty using Monte Carlo simulation

Bridge engineers seek new materials, configurations and other design elements to minimise rehabilitation frequency and intensity over the facility life and hence, reduce life-cycle cost. This article discusses the potential of stainless steel as a bridge deck reinforcement material. The superiority of stainless steel over traditional steel was evaluated on the basis of long-term agency cost and user cost. Using data from a US Midwestern state, the analysis was carried out for a majority of analysis scenarios. For the deterministic situation, the use of stainless steel as bridge deck reinforcement material was found to yield a significantly higher initial cost but drastically reduced the overall life-cycle costs, and thus is more cost-effective over the long term. For the uncertainty situation, Monte Carlo simulation was used to generate the distributions of the life-cycle cost for the stainless and the traditional steel reinforcement materials. It was found that the life-cycle cost for the stainless steel option stochastically dominates the life-cycle cost for traditional steel. Thus, under an uncertainty situation, the use of stainless steel as bridge deck reinforcement material is also more cost-effective compared to traditional steel.