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Steel Designers' Manual - 6th Edition (2003)
Chapter 36
The Eurocodes
by COLIN TAYLOR and MIKE BANFI
36.1 The Eurocodes – background and timescales
In November 2001 the main parts of both Eurocode 3 on Steel Structures and
Eurocode 4 on Composite Construction received a positive vote from their relevant
CEN committees. There will be a period before they are published but this is a
bureaucratic process and there are no more political or technical obstacles to their
final publication. After a process that started over 25 years ago, the first fruits of the
programme are being delivered. A total of five parts will appear in the next few
years. They will cover all the main materials, i.e. concrete, timber masonry and aluminium
as well as steel. They will also cover loading: dead, imposed, wind, snow,
thermal, traffic together with accidental impact and explosion. Steel accounts for
the largest number of parts. There are 20 that, as well as more typical subjects, cover
stainless steel, cold-formed sections, shells, cables, silos, piling, and towers. There are
also three parts for composite structures.
The aim of the Eurocodes is to ‘establish a set of common technical rules for the
design of buildings and civil engineering works which will ultimately replace the differing
rules in Member States’.They are being produced by the European standards
organization CEN. The actual work is being done by standards organizations in
various countries and project teams set up for each part. Each country has a
National Technical Contact for each part. The role of the NTC is to comment on
drafts and, as far as the UK is concerned, liase with the relevant BSI committee. For
most parts there has been an ‘ENV’ version, a ‘pre-standard’, which could be used
for design with the relevant National Application Document. The recent phase has
been conversion of the ENV into a full EN standard.
The process of getting 15 countries to agree on such a large number of technical
issues has been long and hard. There is the rational argument that, as the laws of
physics don’t change, common codes should be possible. Against this is the practical
argument, especially in countries with well developed codes, not to change a
system that works. Not surprisingly there has not been total agreement. The codes
identify areas that are subject to national determination. For these areas and these
alone the member states can input their own values, which will be in National
Annexes to be published with the code. The programme for each part is that, after
the formal vote and process by CEN, the part is made available in English, French
and German. Each member country then has up to two years to fix the Nationally
Determined Parameters and adapt national provisions to allow the part to be used.
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