PSI - Issue 64

Federica Russo et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 64 (2024) 1752–1758 Federica Russo, Gabriella Maselli, Antonio Nesticò / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

1756

5

- t = year in which the cost is incurred; - n = number of years of the analysis; - r = discount rate.

A lower CG value indicates a cheaper project or investment than a higher CG value. Therefore, CG allows different alternatives to be compared objectively, considering the entire useful life of the asset and not just the initial costs.

4. Methodological framework The assessment approaches outlined in Section 3, when used together, provide a comprehensive view of both the environmental and economic implications of a given option, enabling decision makers to make more informed and sustainable choices. Through this integration, one is able to define the workflow in Figure 1, which facilitates a comparison of the environmental and economic performance of two different alternative technological solutions for large industrial floors. In this regard, it should be noted that there is no unambiguous and definitive order as to which analysis, between LCA and LCC, should be performed first in the integrated process.

Fig. 1. Workflow.

S TEP 1: O BJECTIVES & C ONTEXT D EFINITION . At the initial stage of the methodological framework, it is crucial to establish the objectives of the analysis and the context in which it fits. Indeed, first it must be clarified whether the objective is to compare two types of pavements based on their environmental sustainability and economic benefits or to identify the life cycle stages with the greatest environmental impact that can be improved. Next, we proceed to identify the types of industrial flooring to be compared and specify the associated functional and performance requirements, such as load resistance, service life, and ease of maintenance. Following this, key step is the choice of the functional unit of measurement for the analyses, such as square meters of flooring with a given useful life. Equally important is the definition of the system boundaries: to guide the choice between a traditional industrial pavement and a post-tensioned one, the cradle-to-grave approach is recommended as it considers a long-term view of the product life cycle, including maintenance cycles, effective service life, decommissioning phase, and recycling. Finally, before proceeding with the analysis, it is essential to establish the evaluation criteria for both LCA (resource consumption, pollutant emissions, recyclability) and LCC (initial installation costs, maintenance costs, operating costs, residual