ABSTRACT
Life-time predictions of concrete structures are often conducted with help of numerical models. These numerical tools used nowadays play an indispensable role in the design process and have a substantial added value. Modern project tender contracts prescribe life-time requisites up to 100 years of service, often in combination with maintenance responsibilities. In order to deal with these issues, the European project DuraCrete (DuraCrete 2000) has been initiated with the main objective to develop a concept for durability design. The aim was to develop a performance based durability design methodology (Schieβl, Gehlen 2006) based upon realistic and sufficiently accurate environmental and material models capable to predict the behaviour of a concrete structure. The model is based on a design framework in which the probabilistic modelling limit states and modeling of the deterioration mechanisms are formulated. Emphasis of the model is the chloride ingress and the carbonation of the cover zone. However, the chloride ingress turned out to be far more influential with respect to the performance requirements and the service-life predictions. Due to this fact, in this paper the contribution of the chloride ingress as the main mechanism that affects the performance of concrete elements will be considered. Emphasis is, therefore, on the model is on the life-time prediction of structures exposed to chlorides. This paper provides an overview of how this spreadsheet model can be developed and how results can be achieved.
