Description

In the next several decades, a significant percentage of the country's transportation, communications, environmental, and power system infrastructures, as well as public buildings and facilities, will have to be renewed or replaced. Next-generation infrastructure will have to meet very high expectations in terms of durability, constructability, performance, and life-cycle cost. One way of meeting future expectations will be through improved, high-performance materials, but before new materials can be confidently deployed in the field, a thorough and comprehensive understanding must be developed of their long-term performance in a variety of applications and physical environments. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched an initiative to promote the development of innovative short-term laboratory or in-situ tests for making accurate, reliable predictions of the long-term performance of materials and requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct a workshop as a reconnaissance-level assessment of models and methods that are being used, or potentially could be used, to determine the long-term performance of infrastructure materials and components.