Service life prediction and performance testing — Current developments and practical applications

Abstract

The paper reviews the current status of service life prediction and performance testing for concrete structures. Part I emphasizes the advantages of performance-based approaches to durability prediction, from which flows service life modeling. It also deals, inter alia, with issues around performance specifications, durability indicators, and developments in code approaches. In Part II, a practical application of the performance approach to marine concrete is given by way of data from laboratory and site-based tests. It is shown that chloride-transport tests as well as rapid indicators based on electrical properties can be used as inputs to models to provide reasonably reliable predictions of performance with certain limitations. Conversely, predictive models can be used to determine performance parameters to evaluate candidate mixtures to ensure the required performance in a given marine-exposure condition. Of necessity, the review is limited, and the interested reader is referred to the literature for further information.