Durability of cement-based materials in drinking water storage - Towards an integral performance assessment

In order to promote a sustainable development in construction, a significant increase of the durability of cementbased materials is mandatory, resulting in a reduction of the total life cycle costs. To improve the materials and adjust their properties to the requirements, a detailed understanding of the damaging reactions is just as necessary as sophisticated methods to assess the performance of the materials. This contribution evaluates the applicability of an accelerated degradation test that takes advantage of the impact of electrical fields on the stability of cement-based materials in permanent contact to aqueous environments. Laboratory experiments show, that such tests are suitable to compare the resilience against reactive transport processes of materials and to draw conclusions regarding their performance. In this context, it is essential to investigate material changes in terms of depth and time. This approach appears suitable for performance assessment in material development as well as for quality control in practice.