Design life

[NJonesUK]

G'day chaps.

My senior is looking to reference a design guide to give credence to a 50 year design life statement in one of our bid submissions.

Is there anywhere which states in the British Standards how long the design life of a structure should be if designed to BS5950 or BS8110?

Strange question, I know. However, if it was simple I wouldn't be asking you bright bunch, would I? Ha.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[csd72]

Nick,

I suggest you look at the bridge codes as I expect these would have a section on design life (which is usually at least 50 years for bridges.

for concrete it is generally a case of concrete type and quality as well as cover to the reinforcement.

For steel it is generally a case of the type of surface treatment (e.g. paint, galvanising e.t.c.) A good source of paint specs for long service life is the Network Rail painting specification.

 

[rb1957]

design life would consider corrosion/maintenance issues,
but also there'd be load issues, no?

 

[csd72]

on most building codes the loads are the same for most design lives, even wind is only factored up based on importance.

 

[S275]

For concrete structures there is a nice (Free) software

From here:

http://www.cortecmci.com/sustainability.html

You go to the software website

http://www.life-365.org/

Where you can see some screen shots here:

http://www.life-365.org/overview.html

(As I remember from a seminar that I attended) it estimates the life of your structures based upon several parameters; rebar cover, admixtures, w/c ..

I didn't try it my self but have seen screen shots and it looked interesting.

For steel structures I would assume that it is easier to estimate its life (I think it will be mainly dependent on the applied steel coating and corrosion resistance, try to search with such terms)
Good luck