Title:
Design Specification For Service Life Evaluation: Technical Implications
Author(s):
Jose Pacheco and Kyle Stanish
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
366
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
49-56
Keywords:
service life prediction, design specification, corrosion, durability
DOI:
10.14359/51749232
Date:
10/1/2025
Abstract:
ACI Committee 365 published a new Design Specification in 2024. The Design Specification was developed to provide requirements to the Service Life Engineer, a specialty engineer focused on durability, for performing service life predictions of new structures. The Service Life Engineer is responsible for predicting the service life performance of concrete elements and developing requirements for the verification of the service life prediction during construction. The Service Life Report, developed during or prior to construction, and a Service Life Record Report, delivered at the completion of construction, are deliverables prepared by the Service Life Engineer at the completion of the project. The requirements of the Design Specification aim to provide consistency to the practice of service life prediction of new concrete structures. The technical requirements for performing service life predictions following the Design Specification are discussed in this paper.
Related References:
1. ACI Code-365 (2024). Service Life Evaluation—Design Specification, American Concrete Institute.
2. Hopper, T., Langlois, A. M., Murphy, T., & America, C. N. (2022). Reference Guide for Service Life Design of Bridges (No. FHWA-HIF-22-052). United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Bridges and Structures.
3. S. Rostam (2005). Service life design of concrete structures-a challenge to designers as well as to owners, Asian Journal Civil Engineering, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 423–445
4. P. Hovde and K. Moser (2004). Performance-Based Methods for Service Life Prediction, CIB W080 /RILEM 175-SLM Service Life Methodologies, Tech. Rep.
5. ACI PRC-201.2 (2023). Durable Concrete—Guide, American Concrete Institute.
6. ACI PRC-222 (2019). Guide to Protection of Metals in Concrete Against Corrosion. American Concrete Institute.
7. ACI PRC-365.1 (2017). Report on Service Life Prediction. American Concrete Institute.
8. Kesner, K., Klein, J., Marcotte, T., & Poston, R. (2020). Literature Review of Concrete Durability & Service Life Requirements in Global Codes and Standards. American Concrete Institute Foundation.
9. ACI CODE-318 (2022). Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary. American Concrete Institute
10. Collepardi, M., Marcialis, A., & Turriziani, R. (1972). Penetration of chloride ions into cement pastes and concretes. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 55(10), 534-535.
11. Thomas, M. D., & Bamforth, P. B. (1999). Modelling chloride diffusion in concrete: Effect of fly ash and slag. Cement and concrete research, 29(4), 487-495.
12. Stanish, K., & Thomas, M. (2003). The use of bulk diffusion tests to establish time-dependent concrete chloride diffusion coefficients. Cement and concrete research, 33(1), 55-62.
13. Andrade, C., Prieto, M., Tanner, P., Tavares, F., & d’Andrea, R. (2013). Testing and modelling chloride penetration into concrete. Construction and Building Materials, 39, 9-18.
14. Jensen, O. M., Hansen, P. F., Coats, A. M., & Glasser, F. P. (1999). Chloride ingress in cement paste and mortar. Cement and Concrete Research, 29(9), 1497-1504.
15. Samson, E., & Marchand, J. (2007). Modeling the transport of ions in unsaturated cement-based
materials. Computers & Structures, 85(23-24), 1740-1756.
16. Johannesson, B., Yamada, K., Nilsson, L. O., & Hosokawa, Y. (2007). Multi-species ionic diffusion in concrete with account to interaction between ions in the pore solution and the cement hydrates. Materials and structures, 40, 651-665.
17. Fib Bulletin 34 (2006), Model Code for Service Life Design, FIB, Tech. Rep. 34.
18. Tuutti, K. (1982). Corrosion of steel in concrete.
19. Glass, G. K., & Buenfeld, N. R. (2000). The influence of chloride binding on the chloride induced corrosion risk in reinforced concrete. Corrosion Science, 42(2), 329-344.
20. Khan, M. U., Ahmad, S., & Al-Gahtani, H. J. (2017). Chloride‐Induced Corrosion of Steel in Concrete: An Overview on Chloride Diffusion and Prediction of Corrosion Initiation Time. International journal of corrosion, 2017(1), 5819202.
21. Glass, G. K., & Buenfeld, N. R. (2000). Chloride‐induced corrosion of steel in concrete. Progress in Structural Engineering and Materials, 2(4), 448-458.
22. Šavija, B., Pacheco, J., & Schlangen, E. (2013). Lattice modeling of chloride diffusion in sound and cracked concrete. Cement and Concrete Composites, 42, 30-40.
23. Ji, Y., Pel, L., Zhang, X., & Sun, Z. (2021). Cl-and Na+ ions binding in slag and fly ash cement paste during early hydration as studied by 1H, 35Cl and 23Na NMR. Construction and Building Materials, 266, 121606.
24. Sarkar, S., Mahadevan, S., Meeussen, J. C. L., Van der Sloot, H., & Kosson, D. S. (2010). Numerical simulation of cementitious materials degradation under external sulfate attack. Cement and Concrete Composites, 32(3), 241-252.
25. Marchand, J., Samson, E., Maltais, Y., & Beaudoin, J. J. (2002). Theoretical analysis of the effect of weak sodium sulfate solutions on the durability of concrete. Cement and Concrete Composites, 24(3-4), 317-329.
26. Esposito, R., & Hendriks, M. A. N. (2019). Literature review of modelling approaches for ASR in concrete: a new perspective. European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 23(11), 1311-1331.
27. Iskhakov, T., Timothy, J. J., & Meschke, G. (2019). Expansion and deterioration of concrete due to ASR: Micromechanical modeling and analysis. Cement and Concrete Research, 115, 507-518.
28. Alnaggar, M., Cusatis, G., & Di Luzio, G. (2013). Lattice discrete particle modeling (LDPM) of alkali silica reaction (ASR) deterioration of concrete structures. Cement and Concrete Composites, 41, 45-59.
29. Çopuroğlu, O., & Schlangen, E. (2008). Modeling of frost salt scaling. Cement and Concrete Research, 38(1), 27-39.
30. Liu, Q., Andersen, L. V., & Wu, M. (2024). Prediction of concrete abrasion depth and computational design optimization of concrete mixtures. Cement and Concrete Composites, 148, 105431.
31. Rong, X. L., Li, L., Zheng, S. S., Wang, F., Huang, W. Y., Zhang, Y. X., & Lu, D. (2023). Freeze‒thaw damage model for concrete considering a nonuniform temperature field. Journal of Building Engineering, 72, 106747.
32. Andrade, C., Prieto, M., Tanner, P., Tavares, F., & d’Andrea, R. (2013). Testing and modelling chloride penetration into concrete. Construction and Building Materials, 39, 9-18.
33. Thomas, M. (2016). The durability of concrete for marine construction: Materials and properties. In Marine Concrete Structures (pp. 151-170). Woodhead Publishing.
34. Petcherdchoo, A., & Chindaprasirt, P. (2019). Exponentially aging functions coupled with time-dependent chloride transport model for predicting service life of surface-treated concrete in tidal zone. Cement and Concrete Research, 120, 1-12.
35. Polder, R. B., & De Rooij, M. R. (2005). Durability of marine concrete structures-Field investigations and modelling. HERON, 50(3), 133.
36. Baroghel-Bouny, V., Dierkens, M., Wang, X., Soive, A., Saillio, M., Thiery, M., & Thauvin, B. (2013). Ageing and durability of concrete in lab and in field conditions: investigation of chloride penetration. Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Materials, 2(2), 67-110.
37. Angst, U., Elsener, B., Larsen, C. K., & Vennesland, Ø. (2009). Critical chloride content in reinforced concrete—A review. Cement and concrete research, 39(12), 1122-1138.
38. Markeset, G. (2009). Critical chloride content and its influence on service life predictions. Materials and Corrosion, 60(8), 593-596.
39. Pacheco, J., & Polder, R. B. (2016). Critical chloride concentrations in reinforced concrete specimens with ordinary Portland and blast furnace slag cement. Heron, 61(2), 99-119.
40. Adil, G., Halmen, C., Vaddey, P., Pacheco, J., & Trejo, D. (2022). Multi-Laboratory Validation Study of Critical Chloride Threshold Test Method. ACI Materials Journal, 119(6), 91-100.
41. Hansson, C. M., Frølund, T., & Markussen, J. B. (1985). The effect of chloride cation type on the corrosion
of steel in concrete by chloride salts. Cement and Concrete Research, 15(1), 65-73.
42. Song, Z., Jiang, L., Liu, J., & Liu, J. (2015). Influence of cation type on diffusion behavior of chloride ions
in concrete. Construction and Building Materials, 99, 150-158.
43. Zhu, Q., Jiang, L., Chen, Y., Xu, J., & Mo, L. (2012). Effect of chloride salt type on chloride binding behavior of concrete. Construction and Building Materials, 37, 512-517.
44. Andrade, C. (2019). Propagation of reinforcement corrosion: principles, testing and modelling. Materials and Structures, 52(1), 2.
45. Bertolini, L., Elsener, B., Pedeferri, P., Redaelli, E., & Polder, R. B. (2013). Corrosion of steel in concrete: prevention, diagnosis, repair. John Wiley & Sons.
46. Broomfield, J. P. (2023). Corrosion of steel in concrete: understanding, investigation and repair. Crc Press.
47. Otieno, M. B., Beushausen, H. D., & Alexander, M. G. (2011). Modelling corrosion propagation in reinforced concrete structures–A critical review. Cement and Concrete composites, 33(2), 240-245.
48. Isgor, O. B., & Razaqpur, A. G. (2006). Modelling steel corrosion in concrete structures. Materials and
Structures, 39, 291-302.
49. Raupach, M. (2006). Models for the propagation phase of reinforcement corrosion–an overview. Materials and Corrosion, 57(8), 605-613.
50. Sagüés, A. A. (2003). Modeling the effects of corrosion on the lifetime of extended reinforced concrete structures. Corrosion, 59(10)
51. Angst, U. M., Geiker, M. R., Michel, A., Gehlen, C., Wong, H., Isgor, O. B., ... & Buenfeld, N. (2017). The steel–concrete interface. Materials and Structures, 50, 1-24.
52. Angst, Ueli M., Mette R. Geiker, Maria Cruz Alonso, Rob Polder, O. Burkan Isgor, Bernhard Elsener, Hong Wong et al. “The effect of the steel–concrete interface on chloride-induced corrosion initiation in concrete: a critical review by RILEM TC 262-SCI.” Materials and Structures 52 (2019): 1-25.
53. Marchand, J., Odler, I., & Skalny, J. P. (2001). Sulfate attack on concrete. CRC Press.
54. ACI PRC-207.1 (2021). Mass Concrete—Guide. American Concrete Institute.
55. Samson, E., & Marchand, J. (2007). Modeling the transport of ions in unsaturated cement-based materials. Computers & Structures, 85(23-24), 1740-1756.
56. Ikumi, T., & Segura, I. (2019). Numerical assessment of external sulfate attack in concrete structures. A review. Cement and Concrete Research, 121, 91-105.
57. Nguyen, T. N., Sanchez, L. F., Li, J., Fournier, B., & Sirivivatnanon, V. (2022). Correlating alkali-silica reaction (ASR) induced expansion from short-term laboratory testings to long-term field performance: A semi-empirical model. Cement and Concrete Composites, 134, 104817.
58. ACI SPEC-301 (2020) Specifications for Structural Concrete. American Concrete Institute.
59. Pacheco, J. (2019). Incorporating Cracks in Chloride Ingress Modeling and Service Life Predictions. ACI Materials Journal, 116(5).
60. Cui, Z., & Alipour, A. (2018). Concrete cover cracking and service life prediction of reinforced concrete structures in corrosive environments. Construction and Building Materials, 159, 652-671.
61. Audenaert, K., Marsavina, L., & De Schutter, G. (2009). Influence of cracks on the service life of concrete structures in a marine environment. Key Engineering Materials, 399, 153-160.
62. Alexander, M., & Beushausen, H. (2019). Durability, service life prediction, and modelling for reinforced concrete structures–review and critique. Cement and Concrete Research, 122, 17-29.