Eurocodes - failing to standardise safety?
Eurocodes - failing to standardise safety?
The first of Europe's new suite of structural design standards—the EN or ‘Eurocode’ series—are being published this year and, before the end of the decade, will have replaced all existing European national codes. This paper demonstrates that the codes as drafted could lead to widely varying safety levels within a given structure and increase the risk of catastrophic failure. By way of example it looks at the probability of structural steel bolts, beams and plate girders falling below their design strength and shows that the proposed Eurocode 3 design expressions could lead to some components being expensively over-designed and other parts becoming a dangerously weak link. To get around the problem it proposes the introduction of hidden safety factors in the Eurocode design equations, ensuring greater harmonisation in reliability of structural components, reduced cost and increased structural safety.
codes of practice and standards, risk and probability analysis, steel structures
186-188
Byfield, M.P.
35515781-c39d-4fe0-86c8-608c87287964
Nethercot, D.A.
7e9d9773-774f-4ae8-ba8e-90620ef13537
November 2001
Byfield, M.P.
35515781-c39d-4fe0-86c8-608c87287964
Nethercot, D.A.
7e9d9773-774f-4ae8-ba8e-90620ef13537
Byfield, M.P. and Nethercot, D.A.
(2001)
Eurocodes - failing to standardise safety?
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering, 144 (4), .
(doi:10.1680/cien.144.1.186.39550).
Abstract
The first of Europe's new suite of structural design standards—the EN or ‘Eurocode’ series—are being published this year and, before the end of the decade, will have replaced all existing European national codes. This paper demonstrates that the codes as drafted could lead to widely varying safety levels within a given structure and increase the risk of catastrophic failure. By way of example it looks at the probability of structural steel bolts, beams and plate girders falling below their design strength and shows that the proposed Eurocode 3 design expressions could lead to some components being expensively over-designed and other parts becoming a dangerously weak link. To get around the problem it proposes the introduction of hidden safety factors in the Eurocode design equations, ensuring greater harmonisation in reliability of structural components, reduced cost and increased structural safety.
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Published date: November 2001
Additional Information:
Byfield M. P., Nethercot D.A., (2001). "Eurocodes - failing to standardise safety?." Civil Engineering - Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 144, 186-188
Keywords:
codes of practice and standards, risk and probability analysis, steel structures
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 53910
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/53910
ISSN: 0965-089X
PURE UUID: 287f86e5-72f0-4191-827e-dbdd5a2e84c7
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Date deposited: 22 Jul 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 10:42
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Author:
M.P. Byfield
Author:
D.A. Nethercot
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