Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
There is an urgent need to develop sustainable infrastructure solutions. Considering this, it is of great importance to conduct LCA analysis due to the overall impact of the construction sector, which is around 30% of the energy consumption worldwide (J. D. Rodriguez Millan, 2024). Furthermore, the transport sector accounts for 24% of the total CO2 emissions (J. D. Rodriguez Millan, 2024). In light of this, the ELISA project aims at improving the sustainability of infrastructures, by reducing energy and resource consumption, and creating a platform where it is possible to share knowledge and information, obtained using various technologies (J. D. Rodriguez Millan, 2024). This thesis makes use of the data obtained from the PhD thesis “Smart pavement maintenance and infrastructure operation through digital twins”, which is based on Norvik port.The main objective is to design two alternative pavements, both rigid and flexible ones, and compare them with the concrete block pavement in use at Norvik port, by means of Life Cycle Assessment. The pavements are designed referring to the Heavy duty pavement manual. Subsequently, just for the sake of comparison, the designs are re-evaluated with the AASHTO ’93 manual, a commonly used methodology to design highway pavements. To compare the rigid and flexible pavements, to the concrete block ones, a Life Cycle Assessment is conducted considering both, the construction and the maintenance phase. A Life Cycle Inventory is carried out, collecting all the necessary data for each step of the LCA from the “Life Cycle Assessment of roads”, realised by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. The functional unit adopted is one square meter of pavement, and the environmental impact is assessed through CO2 equivalents (eq.).The outcomes suggest that the construction phase of the cycle has a more significant adverse environmental impact. This phase is composed of multiple steps, of which the “production of cement” is the most crucial, even when compared to the “production of bitumen”. Therefore the most crucial design, in terms of carbon footprint, is the concrete pavement. The more environmentally friendly design is the fully flexible pavement. At the same time, the concrete block pavements have higher CO2 eq. emissions, than the flexible designs, because of the concrete block surface. However, these conclusions need to be evaluated against the performance of the pavements over their design life, in order to determine the optimum design.
2024.