Performance Based Specifications for Durability of Concrete Structures – Opportunities and Challenges

Despite numerous reported cases of failure of concrete structures the durability of concrete is still compromised due to lack of a clear strategy for ensuring its performance in the exposure environment. This is someway addressed in EN 206-1: 2000, by specifying 6 different exposure classes with 23 different sub-classes in total. However, the approach to ensure durability in these service environments is still prescriptive or "deemed-to-satisfy" manner. Therefore, a performance-based strategy to specify concrete and a set of performance tests to assess its performance in the service environment are essential so that reliable prediction of its service life could be made. Such an approach is likely to contribute to improving the sustainability of concrete infrastructure, by minimising premature replacement of structures and allocating resources in a timely and planned manner. This strategy is introduced in this paper and suggestions for making further progress are made.