Overview of the development of service life design for concrete structures
conference paper
After the introduction of reinforced concrete it was believed that the material was extremely durable. Soon it was found that reinforced concrete could have serious durability problems and that special care should be taken to avoid them. Durability became a design issue.
Based on experience from practice and research, construction rules have been formulated to ensure the durability of the reinforced concrete. Durability was twenty-five years ago however no real issue for design and practice. National organisations and international organisations like CEB and RILEM have become since than very active and widened the fundamental and practical knowledge on durability. This forms the basis of the present design manuals, standards and codes on durability of concrete.
The present durability method is based on a vague idea about the service life of the structure, being some decades. In a number of cases is however extensive maintenance and repair necessary. In a few cases lack of durability has even caused the collapse of concrete structures. This has initiated new research to the various degradation mechanisms. It changed also the approach to the problem: the service life has been taken into account explicitly. The design changed from a deem-to-satisfy approach to a performance-based approach with explicit attention for the design life, limit states and reliability. CEB has decided in 1996 to accept this approach as the basis for durability. In the mean time the research project DuraCrete (in the 4th framework programme Brite EuRam of the European Union) has been started to produce a first manual for design and assessment on this basis. This became available in the course of 1999. The knowledge of this project has been used recently to make the service life design of the whole Western Scheldt tunnel (bored tunnel in The Netherlands). This is the first time that a complete concrete structure has been designed on basis of service life, performance and reliability.
The history of service life design of concrete structures will not be ended by these achievements. Further knowledge, design methods, new materials, construction techniques, and so on need to be developed for the further improvement of concrete structures
Based on experience from practice and research, construction rules have been formulated to ensure the durability of the reinforced concrete. Durability was twenty-five years ago however no real issue for design and practice. National organisations and international organisations like CEB and RILEM have become since than very active and widened the fundamental and practical knowledge on durability. This forms the basis of the present design manuals, standards and codes on durability of concrete.
The present durability method is based on a vague idea about the service life of the structure, being some decades. In a number of cases is however extensive maintenance and repair necessary. In a few cases lack of durability has even caused the collapse of concrete structures. This has initiated new research to the various degradation mechanisms. It changed also the approach to the problem: the service life has been taken into account explicitly. The design changed from a deem-to-satisfy approach to a performance-based approach with explicit attention for the design life, limit states and reliability. CEB has decided in 1996 to accept this approach as the basis for durability. In the mean time the research project DuraCrete (in the 4th framework programme Brite EuRam of the European Union) has been started to produce a first manual for design and assessment on this basis. This became available in the course of 1999. The knowledge of this project has been used recently to make the service life design of the whole Western Scheldt tunnel (bored tunnel in The Netherlands). This is the first time that a complete concrete structure has been designed on basis of service life, performance and reliability.
The history of service life design of concrete structures will not be ended by these achievements. Further knowledge, design methods, new materials, construction techniques, and so on need to be developed for the further improvement of concrete structures
TNO Identifier
330158
ISBN
0-643-06827-9
Source title
9th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components (9DBMC), Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane, Australia, 17-20 March (Volume 3)
Pages
1-9
Files
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