Industrial and techno-economic feasibility of concrete structures reinforced with DP rebars

Dual-Phase (DP) steel reinforcing bars represent a valid alternative to traditional TempCore®, characterized by good mechanical properties and by improved performance under aggressive environmental conditions. As known, TempCore® rebars highlight relevant decrease of the deformation capacity in presence of corrosion, with possible negative consequences for the overall building behaviour. Being the mechanical assessment of DP rebars widely presented in other already published works, the present paper shows the analysis of the industrial feasibility of the production process of DP rebars, analysing how actual plants can be adapted to achieve the desired DP microstructure and finally providing an overall estimation of the cost increase. The techno-economic and environmental analysis of the feasibility of reinforced concrete (RC) constructions using DP rebars is therefore performed using the conventional method for the Expected Annual Loss index evaluation; comparison to RC buildings with TempCore® B450C rebars is provided.