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Roofing system durability or service life depends greatly on the resistance of the system to climatic effects. In arid regions, the environmental temperature plays a major role in the performance of roof tiles. The temperature difference between the internal and external tile surfaces is one of the important parameters that control the characteristic of the thermal crack. This paper numerically investigates the thermal performance of concrete roof tiles widely used as roof covering material in Australia. A 3-D finite element model of the roof tile was developed in ATENA software. The field monitored temperature data at the inner and outer surface of the tiles was used to analyse the thermal performance. Further, a parametric study was conducted to quantify the effect of material property and thermal loading. It was observed that the temperature difference between the inner and outer surface of the tile has the significant effect on the crack width, however the rate of cooling of the top surface does not have an effect on the crack width. Finally, a probabilistic crack width damage model was developed as a function of the temperature difference. This can be used to assess the vulnerability of concrete tile subjected to thermal load. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.