Durability Testing and Reliability Analysis of Connections in Lightweight Metal Structures

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In the design of civil infrastructure, such as buildings and bridges, aesthetics and sustainability considerations such as reducing user delay costs and long term environmental impacts are increasingly leading designers to consider the use of lightweight metal structures. With a modest increase in material cost, significant benefits can be realized through the use of more durable alloys and lightweight modular solutions that allow for longer service lives, a higher degree of prefabrication, reduced transportation and installation costs, and significantly reduced build times. These materials also lend themselves particularly well to “design for deconstruction” (DfD) – an emerging concept, which involves careful consideration at the design stage, largely through the material selection and connection design, of how a structure can be more easily taken apart at the end of its service life to facilitate higher rates of reuse. In order to ensure that the highest potential is achieved in terms of the sustainability and societal benefit offered by lightweight metal structures, fundamental research is needed to develop more durable and reliable connection concepts for these structures.