Preface to Chapter 5

This document seeks to give an appreciation of the wide range of issues associated with the design of durable concrete structures and matters concerned with service life design. The material reported here is drawn from many sources. Hopefully all of which have been adequately



acknowledged. The document attempts to reflect recent and evolving developments and thereby give an up to date overview on matters concerned with service life design.



The document contains 19 main sections. Section 1 provides an introduction and sets out the scope of the issues, providing an overview of the document. It notes that modern concrete forms a family of materials and seeks to indicate why is durability of concrete structures is important. It reviews previous experience in terms of the in-service performance of concrete structures and the need to take a holistic view when creating durable concrete structures. Section 1 also notes the importance of variations in concrete properties and the durability critical role of the cover concrete, it outlines some simple conceptual models for the deterioration caused by the corrosion of reinforcement. It introduces the benefits of considering through-life performance, whole-life cost and sustainability perspectives when undertaking outline service life design and developing durability and service life design concepts. Section 1 provides definitions and terminology, before giving an overview of the various approaches to service life design and drawing parallels between contemporary structural and probabilistic based service life design concepts.