Assessment of Life-Cycle Benefit-Cost of Composites in Construction

So far, composite materials have found only moderate acceptance in the construction industry. This has been due primarily to technical and economic barriers such as limited information on life-cycle costs and anticipated performance and benefits. To enhance the application of composites in construction, it is important to develop a model that allows life-cycle benefit-cost assessment based on limited available information. This paper presents such a life-cycle benefit-cost model for composites in construction that does not require monetary quantification of benefits for comparison of alternative materials. The model has been explained through an example application for highway bridge column rehabilitation. The example considers composite column wraps versus conventional steel jackets to illustrate the application of the model.