An Approach to Improved Durability Tests for Building Materials and Components

摘要

Durability tests usually provide relative measures of the time building materials and components will perform their intended functions under the expected service conditions. This is not adequate to ensure the proper selection of new building materials and components because quantitative measures of long-term performance are needed. Although many tests have been developed to accelerate degradation processes of building materials, they are seldom fully adequate for reliably predicting long-term performance. In this paper, a recommended practice, ASTM E 632-78, which provided a framework for the development of improved durability tests, is outlined. The application of the recommended practice, which does not specify an analysis procedure, is illustrated by examples from the literature using both deterministic and probabilistic approaches. While probabilistic concepts have not been applied extensively to materials durability problems in the construction industry, these concepts offer new opportunities for obtaining improved quantitative predictions of the service life of building materials.