Description

BRANZ research is expanding our knowledge of how multiple factors influence building material corrosion. This will lead to a new way of mapping corrosivity and allow the right materials to be specified for different environments.

Materials are core to buildings, contributing, for example, 16–24% of residential building development costs. They are required to meet the durability requirements of the New Zealand Building Code to address potential corrosion risks.

This poses huge challenges since corrosion is influenced by multiple factors and varies considerably across New Zealand’s diverse and unique environments.

Scope

This article includes:

• Material specification scheme
• Atmosphere is corrosive
• Mapping atmospheric corrosivity
• Micro-climate can increase corrosivity significantly
• Building micro-environments important but poorly understood
• BRANZ filling information gaps
• Challenges from the changing climate
• Corrosion prediction is essential, but how?
• Get more information from BRANZ