The Eurocodes are the ten European standards (EN; harmonised technical rules) specifying how

structural design Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and c ...

should be conducted within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU). These were developed by the

European Committee for Standardization The European Committee for Standardization (CEN, ) is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global trading, the welfare of European citizens an ...

upon the request of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

.EN 1990:2002 E, Eurocode - Basis of Structural Design, CEN, November 29, 2001 The purpose of the Eurocodes is to provide: * a means to prove compliance with the requirements for mechanical strength and stability and safety in case of fire established by European Union law.European Council Directive 89/106/EEC * a basis for construction and engineering contract specifications. * a framework for creating harmonized technical specifications for building products (

CE mark The presence of the logo on Product (business), commercial products indicates that the Manufacturing, manufacturer or importer affirms the goods' conformity with European Environment, health and safety, health, safety, and environmental prote ...

). By March 2010, the Eurocodes are mandatory for the specification of European public works and are intended to become the

de facto standard A ''de facto'' standard is a custom or convention that is commonly used even though its use is not required. is a Latin phrase (literally " of fact"), here meaning "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, ...

for the private sector. The Eurocodes therefore replace the existing national

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for construction objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permis ...

s published by national standard bodies (e.g.

BS 5950 BS 5950 is a withdrawn British Standard for the design, fabrication and erection of structural steelwork. It was written for use in the UK but can be used worldwide. It was superseded by BS EN 1993 and withdrawn on 30 March 2010. It does not a ...

), although many countries had a period of co-existence. Additionally, each country is expected to issue a National Annex to the Eurocodes which will need referencing for a particular country (e.g. The UK National Annex). At present, take-up of Eurocodes is slow on private sector projects and existing national codes are still widely used by engineers. The motto of the Eurocodes is ''"Building the future"''. The second generation of the Eurocodes (2G Eurocodes) is being prepared.

History

In 1975, the Commission of the European Community (presently the European Commission), decided on an action programme in the field of construction, based on article 95 of the Treaty. The objective of the programme was to eliminate technical obstacles to trade and the harmonisation of technical specifications. Within this action programme, the Commission took the initiative to establish a set of harmonised technical rules for the design of construction works which, in a first would serve as an alternative to the national rules in force in the

member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

of the

(EU) and, ultimately, would replace them. For fifteen years, the Commission, with the help of a steering committee with representatives of the member states, conducted the development of the Eurocodes programme, which led to the first generation of European codes in the 1980s. In 1989, the Commission and the member states of the EU and the

European Free Trade Association The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe, European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ...

(EFTA) decided, on the basis of an agreement between the Commission and to transfer the preparation and the publication of the Eurocodes to the

(CEN) through a series of mandates, in order to provide them with a future status of European Standard (EN). This links de facto the Eurocodes with the provisions of all the Council's Directives and/or Commission's Decisions dealing with European standards (e.g. Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011 on the marketing of construction products and Directive 2014/24/EU on

government procurement in the European Union Government procurement or public procurement is undertaken by the public authorities of the European Union (EU) and its member states in order to award contracts for public works and for the purchase of goods and services in accordance with pri ...

List

The Eurocodes are published as a separate ''European Standards'', each having a number of parts. By 2002, ten sections have been developed and published: * '' Eurocode 0: Basis of

''(EN 1990) * '' Eurocode 1: Actions on

structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

s''(EN 1991)

::Part 1-1: Densities, self-weight, imposed loads for buildings(EN 1991-1-1) ::Part 1-2: Actions on structures exposed to fire(EN 1991-1-2) ::Part 1-3: General actions - Snow loads(EN 1991-1-3) ::Part 1-4: General actions - Wind actions(EN 1991-1-4) ::Part 1-5: General actions - Thermal actions(EN 1991-1-5) ::Part 1-6: General actions - Actions during execution(EN 1991-1-6) ::Part 1-7: General actions - Accidental Actions(EN 1991-1-7) ::Part 2: Traffic loads on bridges(EN 1991-2) ::Part 3: Actions induced by cranes and machinery(EN 1991-3) ::Part 4 : Silos and tanks(EN 1991-4)

* '' Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures''(EN 1992)

::Part 1-1: General rules, and rules for buildings(EN 1992-1-1) ::Part 1-2: Structural fire design(EN 1992-1-2) ::Part 1-3: Precast Concrete Elements and Structures(EN 1992-1-3) ::Part 1-4: Lightweight aggregate concrete with closed structure(EN 1992-1-4) ::Part 1-5: Structures with unbonded and external prestressing tendons(EN 1992-1-5) ::Part 1-6: Plain concrete structures(EN 1992-1-6) ::Part 2: Reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges(EN 1992-2) ::Part 3: Liquid retaining and containing structures(EN 1992-3) ::Part 4: Design of fastenings for use in concrete(EN 1992-4)

* '' Eurocode 3: Design of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

structures''(EN 1993)

::Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings(EN 1993-1-1) ::Part 1-2: General rules - Structural fire design(EN 1993-1-2) ::Part 1-3: General rules - Supplementary rules for cold-formed members and sheeting(EN 1993-1-3) ::Part 1-4: General rules - Supplementary rules for stainless steels(EN 1993-1-4) ::Part 1-5: Plated structural elements(EN 1993-1-5) ::Part 1-6: Strength and Stability of Shell Structures(EN 1993-1-6) ::Part 1-7: General Rules - Supplementary rules for planar plated structural elements with out of plane loading(EN 1993-1-7) ::Part 1-8: Design of joints(EN 1993-1-8) ::Part 1-9: Fatigue(EN 1993-1-9) ::Part 1-10: Material Toughness and through-thickness properties(EN 1993-1-10) ::Part 1-11: Design of Structures with tension components(EN 1993-1-11) ::Part 1-12: High Strength steels(EN 1993-1-12) ::Part 2: Steel Bridges(EN 1993-2) ::Part 3-1: Towers, masts and chimneys(EN 1993-3-1) ::Part 3-2: Towers, masts and chimneys - Chimneys(EN 1993-3-2) ::Part 4-1: Silos(EN 1993-4-1) ::Part 4-2: Tanks(EN 1993-4-2) ::Part 4-3: Pipelines(EN 1993-4-3) ::Part 5: Piling(EN 1993-5) ::Part 6: Crane supporting structures(EN 1993-6)

* '' Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and concrete structures''(EN 1994)

::Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings(EN 1994-1-1) ::Part 1-2: Structural fire design(EN 1994-1-2) ::Part 2: General rules and rules for bridges(EN 1994-2)

* '' Eurocode 5: Design of

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

structures''(EN 1995)

::Part 1-1: General – Common rules and rules for buildings(EN 1995-1-1) ::Part 1-2: General – Structural fire design(EN 1995-1-2) ::Part 2: Bridges(EN 1995-2)

* '' Eurocode 6: Design of

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

structures''(EN 1996)

::Part 1-1: General – Rules for reinforced and unreinforced masonry structures(EN 1996-1-1) ::Part 1-2: General rules – Structural fire design(EN 1996-1-2) ::Part 2: Design, selection of materials and execution of masonry(EN 1996-2) ::Part 3: Simplified calculation methods for unreinforced masonry structures(EN 1996-3)

* '' Eurocode 7:

Geotechnical Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

design''(EN 1997)

::Part 1: General rules(EN 1997-1) ::Part 2: Ground investigation and testing(EN 1997-2) ::Part 3: Design assisted by field testing(EN 1997-3)

* '' Eurocode 8: Design of structures for

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

resistance''(EN 1998)

::Part 1: General rules, seismic actions and rules for buildings(EN 1998-1) ::Part 2: Bridges(EN 1998-2) ::Part 3: Assessment and retrofitting of buildings(EN 1998-3) ::Part 4: Silos, tanks and pipelines(EN 1998-4) ::Part 5: Foundations, retaining structures and geotechnical aspects(EN 1998-5) ::Part 6: Towers, masts and chimneys(EN 1998-6)

* '' Eurocode 9: Design of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

structures''(EN 1999)

::Part 1-1: General structural rules(EN 1999-1-1) ::Part 1-2: Structural fire design(EN 1999-1-2) ::Part 1-3: Structures susceptible to fatigue(EN 1999-1-3) ::Part 1-4: Cold-formed structural sheeting(EN 1999-1-4) ::Part 1-5: Shell structures(EN 1999-1-5)

Each of the codes (except EN 1990) is divided into a number of Parts covering specific aspects of the subject. In total there are 58 EN Eurocode parts distributed in the ten Eurocodes (EN 1990 – 1999). All of the EN Eurocodes relating to materials have a Part 1-1 which covers the design of buildings and other civil engineering structures and a Part 1-2 for fire design. The codes for concrete, steel, composite steel and concrete, and timber structures and earthquake resistance have a Part 2 covering design of bridges. These Parts 2 should be used in combination with the appropriate general Parts (Parts 1).

References

External links

Eurocodes: Building the Future
-

Eurocodes available in PDF and HTML format
without national annexes
'National Annexes & Eurocodes'
European standards institutes and links to download national annexes. {{Authority control Building codes Civil engineering EN standards

History

List

See also

Previous national standards

References

External links