fib Bulletin 34 addresses Service Life Design (SLD) for plain concrete, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete structures, with a special focus on design provisions for managing the adverse effects of degradation. Its objective is to identify agreed durability related models and to prepare the framework for standardization of performance based design approaches.
Four different options for SLD are given:
- a full probabilistic approach,
- a semi probabilistic approach (partial factor design),
- deemed to satisfy rules,
- avoidance of deterioration.
The service life design approaches described in this document may be applied for the design of new structures, for updating the service life design if the structure exists and real material properties and/or the interaction of environment and structure can be measured (real concrete covers, carbonation depths), and for calculating residual service life.
The bulletin is divided into five chapters:
1. General
2. Basis of design
3. Verification of Service Life Design
4. Execution and its quality management
5. Maintenance and condition control
It also includes four informative annexes, which give background information and examples of procedures and deterioration models for the application in SLD.
The format of Bulletin 34 follows the CEB-FIP tradition for Model Codes: the main provisions are given on the right-hand side of the page, and on the left-hand side, the comments.