Innovation: OCIMA – Online Corrosion Initiation Modelling App

OCIMA is a digital innovation that fundamentally modernizes the service life assessment of reinforced concrete. For bridges, tunnels, retaining walls, or precast elements, durability determines economic efficiency, CO₂ balance, and long-term functionality. In practice, however, blanket standard specifications often dominate instead of component-specific performance data — OCIMA closes this gap. With just a few clicks, the standard version allows you to perform a complete durability assessment in line with EC2: select the component, specify the exposure, choose the cement and concrete cover – and the predicted service life is immediately available. The process is intuitive, self-explanatory, and works without special software. This makes scientifically sound service life planning widely and easily accessible.
    For complex issues, there is an expert version with an open scientific model: diffusion parameters, statistical distributions, critical chloride contents, surface chlorides, and other input variables can be set numerically with precision. An integrated data export function supports direct use in BIM workflows, life cycle cost analyses, and technical documentation. This makes OCIMA an engineering tool for research, public authorities, and large infrastructure projects.

A particularly innovative element is the iterative cement selection via drop-down menu. This allows regionally available cement and binder systems to be compared in order to determine the technically and ecologically optimal setups. OCIMA shows how cement selection, concrete cover, and reinforcing steel—such as carbon steel versus stainless steel reinforcement (e.g., Top12)—influence service life, CO₂ balance, and future repair cycles. 

Practical benefits:

Material, cost and CO₂ savings through optimised components

High planning reliability through transparent and reproducible design-based decisions

Faster development of new products and components without time-consuming and costly physical tests

Strong support for tenders, approvals and ZiE procedures

Easy digital integration into modern planning and documentation processes

OCIMA makes service life modelable, comparable, and specifically optimizable for the first time. The app leads from standard-oriented minimum requirements to data-based, sustainable, and resource-efficient planning practices—setting a new digital standard for the infrastructure of the future.