Probabilistic Development of a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI ) Dataset for Pultruded Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites

摘要

The sustainability of the built environment is in-creasingly coming to the forefront of many building de-signs and infrastructure plans incorporating FRP compo-sites. However, the metrics used to quantify the envi-ronmental impacts of FRPs are not fully understood by manufacturers producing the products or engineers de-signing the applications. Life cycle assessment is now an internationally recognized approach for the quantifica-tion of social, environmental, and economic sustainabili-ty indicators. This methodology is standardized with the ISO 14040 series. Although pultruded sections comprise the most widespread application of FRPs, the underlying environmental datasets necessary for determining their full life cycle impacts have not been developed for North America. Due to differences in the supply chain, materi-al formulation, and legislative environments in Europe and North America, the adoption of existing European composite production environmental datasets is incorrect for North American analyses.