Conclusions
Data on the service life of building materials and components are essential to the cost-effective use of materials. For this reason, it is important that methods be available for reliably predicting service life. In the current state-of-the-art, test methods are most often useful for comparing the relative ‘durabilities’ of building materials as opposed to predicting quantitatively the service life.
The need to advance the state-of-the-art of service life prediction of building materials has stimulated considerable interest in national and international activities in recent years. The technical barriers to meeting the need for improved predictions are numerous and formidable. Therefore, it is not practicable for one laboratory or even one country to pursue, on its own, the long-term, complex and costly research needed to address the barriers. But the barriers offer the opportunity for continued and increased international interactions and the opportunity for performing challenging research on building materials and their degradation processes. In this way, the needs can be met.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Ransom, W. H., ‘Building Failures: Diagnosis and Avoidance’ (Spon, London, 1981).
Sereda, P. J. and Litvan, G. C. (Eds), ‘Durability of Building Materials and Components’, STP 691 (American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, 1980).
Frohnsdorff, G. and Horner, B. (eds), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the ‘Durability of Building Materials and Components’, September 14–16 (National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA).
Sneck, T. and Kaarresalo, A. (eds), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the ‘Durability of Building Materials and Components’, August 12–15, 1874, Espoo, Finland.
Sneck, T. (ed.), ‘Activities on Durability of Building Products’, Research Notes 96 and 97 (Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland, April 1982).
Masters, L. W. (ed.), ‘Problems in Service Life Prediction of Building and Construction Materials’, Proceedings of a NATO-Sponsored Advanced Research Workshop (Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands, 1985).
Masters, L. W., ‘Service Life Prediction: The Barriers and Opportunities’, Proceedings of the 9th CIB Congress (National Swedish Institute for Building Research, Gävle, Sweden, 1983).
Sneck, T., ‘RILEM and Durability’,Mater. Construct. 14 (83) (1982) 379–390.
Ramachandran, V. S., ‘New Approaches to Building Materials’, Proceedings of the 9th CIB Congress (National Swedish Institute for Building Research, Gävle, Sweden, 1983).
ISO 6241, ‘Guidance for the Preparation of Performance Standards in Building’ (International Standards Organization).
ASTM E632-81, ‘Standard Practice for Developing Accelerated Tests to Aid Prediction of the Service Life of Building Components and Materials’ (American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, 1981).
Masters, L. W. and Wolfe, W. C., ‘The Use of Weather and Climatological Data in Evaluating the Durability of Building Components and Materials’, Technical Note 838 (National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, August 1974).
Martin, J. W., Waksman, D. and Bentz, D. P., ‘A Preliminary Stochastic Model for Service Life Prediction of a Photolytically and Thermally Degraded Polymeric Cover Plate Material’, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, Espoo, Finland, August 1984.
Dickens, B., Martin, J. and Waksman, D., ‘Thermal and Photolytic Degradation of Plates of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Containing Monomer’,Polymer 25 (1984) 706–715.
Woodford, D. A. and Whitehead, J. R. (eds), ‘Advances in Life Prediction Methods’, Proceedings of ASME International Conference on Advances in Life Prediction Methods, Materials Conference, Albany, NY, April 18–20, 1983.
Schiessl, G., Institut für Betonstahl and Stahlbetonbau e. V., Munich, private communication (1982).
Blach, K. and Brandt, E., ‘Making the Concept of Duratibility Manageable’, Contribution to a symposium within CIB W60, Hoersholm, Denmark, 1982.
Coulbert, C. D., ‘The Application of Encapsulation Material Stability Data on Photovoltaic Module Life Assessment’ (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, 1983).
Frohnsdorff, G., Masters, L. W. and Martin, J. W., ‘An Approach to Improved Durability Tests for Building Materials and Components’, Technical Note 1120 (National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 1980).
Eurin, Ph., Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, Grenoble, France, private communication (1983).
Australian Standard 1745, Part 2-1975, ‘Outdoor Weathering of Plastics in the Australian Environment’, Part 2, ‘Guidance for Design Purposes’ (Standards Association of Australia, Sydney, 1975).
Australian Standard CK 24, Part 1-1972 ‘Outdoor Weathering of Plastics in the Australian Environment’, Part 1, ‘Commercial Products’ (Standards Association of Australia, Sydney, 1972).
‘Working with the Performance Approach in Building’, CIB Report, Publication 64 (International Council for Building Research Studies and Documentation, CIB, Rotterdam, 1982).
‘Master List for Structuring Documents Relating to Buildings, Building Elements, Components, Materials, and Services’, CIB Report No. 18, (CIB, Rotterdam, 1972).
Quinlan, J. R., ‘An Introduction to Knowledge-Based Expert Systems’,Aust. Computer J. 12 (1980) 56–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Masters, L.W., Brandt, E. Prediction of service life of building materials and components. Materials and Structures 20, 55–77 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02472728
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02472728