ICE - Institution of Civil Engineers - Virtual Library

After 25 years in the making, the suite of 10 European structural design standards—generally known as the Eurocodes—is at last becoming a reality. A total of 62 individual parts have been circulating in working draft form for several years but two have finally been converted to full EN (EuroNorm) status in October 2001. All other parts should be converted in a series of packages by 2005 and, following a few years of coexistence, will replace all existing structural design standards in every EC member state by the end of the decade. This paper provides an introduction to the Eurocodes, describes the potential benefits they offer to civil engineers and sets out the process and timetable for implementation.

EN1990 Eurocode—Basis of structural design was finally approved in October 2001.As well as being one of the first structural European design standards to be published it is the world's first ‘material-independent’ design code, a major achievement in its own right. EN1990 is also a highly strategic document, establishing for all nine other structural Eurocodes the principles and requirements for safety, serviceability and durability.This paper provides an introduction to the head Eurocode, its innovative approach to reliability and risk-management and its limit-state design philosophy. It also summarises the loading combinations for which all European structures will need to be assessed in the forseeable future.

EN1991 Eurocode 1: Actions on structures is in an advanced state of development and forms one of the key documents in the suite of 10 structural Eurocodes. Second only to EN1990 Eurocode—Basis of structural design, Eurocode 1 provides comprehensive information on all actions that should normally be considered in the design of building and civil engineering works. It is in four main parts, the first part being divided into sections that cover self and imposed loads and actions due to fire, snow, wind, heat, construction and accidents. The remaining three parts cover traffic loads on bridges, actions by cranes and machinery and actions in silos and tanks.

EN1992 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures is of fundamental importance to civil engineers given the predominance of concrete in civil engineering construction. The first part of the code, covering common design rules and design requirements for fire, is likely to be approved in January 2002 and should be released in EN standard form by 2003.The second and third parts, covering design of bridges and liquid-retaining structures respectively, are due for release in 2005.This paper looks primarily at the two sections that make up the first part. It explains the principles of ultimate and serviceability limit state design and the requirements for shear, durability and fire in particular. It also lists the other European standards to which concrete designers will need to refer.

EN1993 Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures is wider in scope than most of the other design Eurocodes due to the diversity of steel structures, the need to cover both plastic and elastic design, the use of both bolted and welded joints and the possible slenderness of construction. In the UK alone it will replace seven British standards as well as cover previously uncodified items such as semi-rigid joints, sheet piles, shells, silos and stainless-steel structures. It is also unusual in having a partial material safety factor of 1·0 since a recent survey of European steel products shows they are generally around 20% stronger than their nominal value. This paper provides an introduction to Eurocode 3, its basis of design, design procedures for hot-rolled sections and supporting standards. It concludes that the specialist steel designer will be given a greater versatility than ever before.

This paper provides an outline of the history since 1971 of EN1994 Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and concrete structures followed by an account of current work on it.This should lead to publication of its three parts in 2004–2005 and withdrawal of competing national codes five years later. Summaries are given of the code's wide scope and the principal changes in provisions for buildings and bridges (but excluding structural fire design) since the pre-standard ENV versions were completed between 1992 and 1997. Reference is made to implications for practice in the UK and to some pitfalls of calibration work.

EN1995 Eurocode 5: Design of timber structures poses two problems to the growing number of UK structural timber designers—the change from permissible stress to limit state and the introduction of new code material, such as symbols, terminology, material properties and calculation procedures. This papers introduces the new standard and concludes that while it offers solutions to a wider range of timber design problems than BS 5268 it is not fail-safe with regard to the use or non-use of modification factors. Furthermore, whereas BS 5268 is essentially a slide-rule code, Eurocode 5 requires programmed support so development of appropriate software is a priority.

EN1996 Eurocode 6: Design of masonry structures, the first part of which is due to be published next year, relates to buildings and other civil engineering works and covers unreinforced, prestressed and confined masonry. This paper introduces the new design code and reviews the general design rules of the first part. It concludes that design handbooks will almost certainly be needed to help design engineers verify the ultimate limit states of reinforced and prestressed masonry structures.

Geotechnical engineers have long stood out from the other professional disciplines within civil and structural engineering—not least for their approach to design. Geotechnical calculations have traditionally relied on highly subjective assessments of design parameters whereas everything above the ground uses a more explicit and codified approach. Eurocode 7 aims to bridge the gap. It presents a comprehensive list of conditions which geotechnical designers need to consider and places much greater emphasis on serviceability and how this may be satisfied through ultimate-limit-state design. With four different design methods and three different approaches to limit-state design, it offers great flexibility at the same time as increased rigour.

This paper is intended to give the non-specialist engineer a flavour of how Eurocode 8 works, how it should be used and the principal issues for design. The paper is principally based on the draft for development that was issued for public comment in several parts between 1994 and 1996, and some more recent revisions. It is not a detailed account of the code and the reader is referred to the code for detailed information. The paper describes the design principles for various classes of structures and makes comment and provides insight into a number of particular issues of particular interest to the authors.

Eurocode 9 for the design of aluminium structures was a late addition to the proposed suite of European structural design codes, reflecting the relatively recent introduction of aluminium alloys in the construction industry as an alternative to steel. With only a third of the weight and a self-protecting surface, the material has clear advantages over steel but it also behaves very differently—with a high buckling tendency, no yield plateau and complex strain-hardening characteristics.The code, currently being converted to EN standard, features several innovations including behavioural cross-section classes and new calculation methods for verification of local buckling, evaluation of rotation capacity and design of connections.