Structural Reliability of Bridges Made with EAF Concretes

Abstract

The development of sustainable concretes is becoming an emerging issue in civil construction sector. The use of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) slag aggregates in the production of concretes is one way to fulfill sustainability goals. Past research demonstrated a significant increase of mechanical properties of EAF concretes when compared with ones made with natural aggregates (NA); however, at the same time, their use implies also an increase of self-weight loads. The present contribution aims to investigate the reliability of structural systems realized with EAF concretes, with special emphasis to bridge structures. Two different bridge types, considered as case-study examples, are designed considering ordinary concrete mixes, and subsequently, a reliability analysis is run for each EAF concrete class in order to investigate the variation of structural safety margins related to the use of the sustainable EAF concretes in replacement to the ordinary NA concrete mix.