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New ISO standard for safe, long-lasting building, engineering and industrial structures

07 Aug 2008 - ISO has published a new standard to help engineers, builders and regulators to design structures that are safe and resistant to failure due to environmental and mechanical stresses, and to material degradation.
 
Buildings, civil engineering works, industrial structures, etc. and their components should be conceived, constructed, inspected, maintained and repaired in such a way that, under foreseeable environmental conditions, they maintain their required performance during their design lives with sufficient reliability for the safety and comfort of users and the intended use of the structure.
 
ISO 13823:2008 - General principles on the design of structures for durability specifies general principles and recommends procedures for the verification of the durability of structures subject to known or foreseeable environmental actions, including mechanical actions, causing material degradation leading to failure of performance. It will help to ensure reliability of performance throughout the service life of the structure.
 
This International Standard has the following objectives:
 
- to improve the evaluation and design of structures for durability by the incorporation of building science principles into structural engineering practice
 
- to provide a framework for the development of mathematical models to predict the service life of components of the structure
 
Prof. A.M. Brandt, Chair of ISO/TC 98, Bases for design of structures, comments:"The general principles in the verification and design of structures and components for durability in this International Standard should be used whenever a minimum service life is required, for new structures as well as for the assessment of existing structures."