NRMCA is part of a consortium that supports the Life-365 model which represents a consensus estimate of the service life and life-cycle costs of alternative concrete mixture design and corrosion protection systems. This model follows a methodology, originally developed under ACI’s Service Life Committee, which gives estimates on the effects of design, chloride exposure, environmental temperature, high-performance concrete mixtures, surface barriers and steel types on the service life and life cycle cost of steel-reinforced concrete structures. Over the years, the software has gone through continuous updates, including added features and a major user interface redesign.
Life-365 has been used and referenced by design firms and engineers worldwide to document service life predictions for different concrete mixture and corrosion mitigation alternatives. Comparative life-cycle cost estimates are useful to allow the owner to select the appropriate alternative for the intended service life, even if the initial cost is higher.
Concrete producers are frequently asked to evaluate their proposed system or mixtures and document the predicted service life in a submittal. A comprehensive user manual offers detailed guidance on using the model for service life predictions, with flexible options for overriding defaults when supported by available user data. Life-365 also provides several export options, including printing reports on concrete mixtures and life-cycle costs; exporting project data for other report formats and copying data into Excel or Word tables as well as timeline graph data for reports and project submittals.
This update is a free web-based version that can be accessed on computers, tablets and smartphones and eliminates the need to download and install the software.
Consortium partners are listed on the website. The participation of NRMCA on the consortium and the update to Life-365 was partially funded by the Concrete Advancement Foundation. Life-365 can be accessed here.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association