The ‘bio-based economy’ represents a growing area of development globally and covers a wide range of building materials including wood and wood-based products. A ‘bio-based’ material is intentionally made from substances derived from living (or once-living) organisms. In this context it means that the materials and products are made from renewable resources, with the criteria that a renewable resource recovers faster than it is drained, in contrast to many mineral and fossil resources. Their successful use in various applications in the building sector requires sufficient performance and reliable performance data are needed. A key instrument for predicting the performance of building materials on the base of test and survey data are models. Performance modelling is therefore an important issue within IRG-WP – in particular addressed within WP 2.1 ‘Prediction of Service Life’ as well as for COST Action FP 1303 ‘Performance of Bio-Based Building Materials’. On occasion of the 47th Annual Meeting of IRG-WP a special session on ‘Modelling’ will be held jointly with COST FP 1303. Exposure, decay, and resistance models related to wood and other bio-based building materials will be presented. Cross links between disciplines are sought and shall be intensified such as between material science, chemistry, building physics, wood and fiber technology, polymer science, biology, mycology, entomology, civil engineering, and architecture. This paper provides an overview about modelling approaches and applications of performance models for design and performance classification. Major challenges related to performance modelling are highlighted and discussed such as quality and availability of data for modelling, the variability of input and output variables, the decay-type specificity of models, and their verification.

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