Test methods for service life prediction

It has been deeply investigated by various researchers how to predict service life of building materials and components both before and after that the ISO 15686-2 “Buildings and Constructed Assets - Service Life Planning - Part 2: Service Life Prediction Procedures” was first published in 2001. Although this standard clearly state a systematic methodology for service life prediction of building components, a review of most used service life procedures highlighted quite unexpected results. This paper briefly presents the outcomes of the CIB W80 WG3 “test methods for service life prediction” state of the art report where eleven tests procedures for service life prediction of different building components or materials are analyzed in order to highlight differences and similarities among different test procedures and between each test procedure and the ISO 15686-2. The first result obtained is the evidence of two very different approaches to SLP: • the first approach derives from studies on materials and usually provides for a test method that can be used on a single material, no matter how the material can be used in real project, and characterised by accelerated aging agents that aren’t always related to real climate agents and are often limited to one or two contemporary; • the second approach is more related to the ISO method and is more used on building components then on materials. This second class of method usually has a performance approach to service life prediction and often gives information not only on the service life but also on performance decay over time. An organic view of different test procedures may help to identify what are the steps to be done in order to come to a more pervasive use of the ISO service life prediction methodology.