Alexandria, VA – February 11, 2025:  The Concrete Advancement Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of a new and improved concrete service life and life-cycle cost model called Life-365.  This valuable tool was developed and recently updated by a consortium of industry organizations, with partial funding from the Concrete Advancement Foundation.

The updated, free web app version of Life-365 is now available at www.life-365.org. Accessible on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, this version eliminates the need for downloads or installations, providing users with a seamless experience across devices. All features, functions, and the ability to print reports remain fully intact in the new version.

The industry consortium behind this innovation was originally formed within American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Strategic Development Council (SDC) to fund development of a consensus model to estimate 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.

A comprehensive user manual offers detailed guidance on using the model for service life predictions, with flexible options for overriding defaults when supported by user input. Life-365 also provides several export options, including printing reports on concrete mixes 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.

Life-365 has been used and referenced by design firms and engineers world-wide 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 their intended service life, even if the initial cost is higher. 

The consortium supporting the ongoing development of Life-365 includes the Silica Fume Association, Slag Cement Association, Chryso Saint-Gobain, Euclid Chemical, Master Builders Solutions, Sika Corporation, and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA).  NRMCA’s participation was supported by funding from the Concrete Advancement Foundation. 

The Concrete Advancement Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to decarbonization of the concrete industry as well as advancing resilient communities and sustainable infrastructure. For more information, visit www.concreteadvancement.org.