An integrated approach to the development of performance test methods and their application to evaluation and design

The paper analyses the main features of a Performance Test Method (PTM), and demonstrates that, despite the wide range of attributes for which PTMs are required, the Performance Concept sets a unified common approach for their development. The basic relations between the four factors: a human requirement, the relevant behavioral aspects of the building and its parts, the evolving performance criteria, and the associated PTMs for evaluating compliance, establish the integrated approach presented here. It is demonstrated that PTMs should yield Response Curves as a basic tool for evaluations, assessments and decisions, while prevalent test methods, which are assigned to yield only Pass/Fail results, may be misleading. A procedure for relating compliance to the form of the Response Curve is suggested, with a differentiation between “brittle”, concave and convex curves.