Decoding the Eurocodes

Eurocode 7 needs you!

CEN TC 250/SC7, the committee responsible for Eurocode 7, has published its plan for developing the next generation of Eurocode 7, scheduled for publication in 2020.

The plan comprises 6 tasks that will result in a new 3-Part standard with the emphasis on ease-of-use and more practical design rules:

1. Harmonization and ease-of-use, resulting in a reorganized framework for Eurocode 7
2. General rules, resulting in revised Eurocode 7 Part 1 concentrating on principles and compatible with the other structural Eurocodes
3. Ground investigation, producing a revised Eurocode 7 Part 2 focussed on more practical information for a wider range of tests
4. Foundations, slopes, and ground improvement, delivering the first half of the new Eurocode 7 Part 3, devoted to practical rules for design of these structures
5. Retaining structures, anchors, and reinforced ground, delivering the second half of the new Eurocode 7 Part 3
6. Rock mechanics and dynamic design, adding to and enhancing existing text on these neglected subjects throughout all parts of Eurocode 7

For greater detail about what SC7 has in store, see my earlier blog entry '2020 Vision: the future direction of Eurocode 7' (dated 13th March 2014).

Click here to download the poster in PDF format. Give to your friends and colleagues!

Parallel to the publication of SC7's development plan for Eurocode 7, British Standards Institution (BSI) has launched a Systematic Review of the Eurocodes and has invited all-and-sundry to respond to six important questions:

1. Do any clauses require editorial or technical correction?
2. Which clauses would benefit from improvements in clarity?
3. Where should the scope of the EN be extended?
4. Where could the EN be shortened?
5. Are there any clauses whose application leads to uneconomic construction?
6. Are there any clauses whose application necessitates excessive design effort?

It is very important that the UK geotechnical industry's voice is heard at European level and this is your opportunity to speak up! Professor David Nethercott of Imperial College and Chair of B/525, - the BSI committee responsible for the UK's input to the Eurocode development - has written an open letter about the importance of this review, here:

BSI's Systematic Review page

What do you need to do? Simples!

1. Download the BSI commentijng template from the BSI page (link above)
2. Enter comments under the appropriate question heading (1-6)
3. Give specific comments, not generalisations, relating to specific clauses
4. Send the template by email to [email protected] no later than the 15th August 2014

Note the plea for specific comments - it is no good telling SC7 that Eurocode 7 is difficult to use. Please tell us how we can make it easier! Which clauses would you change? What is missing from the code? What doesn't need to be in there?

If you have any questions about this process - or wish to get involved in some way over the next 5-6 years - please contact me, Andrew Bond, in my role as Chairman of SC7, to discuss.

Eurock 2014 conference in Vigo

I attended - without actually being there - the recent one-day workshop on 'Applicability and application of Eurocode 7 to rock engineering design', held in Vigo, Spain, on the 26^th of May. By that I mean I gave the opening address via tele-conference to an audience (faces unseen) approaching 100 delegates.

The aims of the workshop were two-fold:

• to present reports on difficulties and deficiencies  encountered in the application of Eurocode-7 (EC7) to rock engineering design
• to discuss experiences of rock engineeringdesign to EC7 by calculation, prescriptive methods andobservational methods

The intention was to identify and suggest improvements to EC7, and hence help direct the future developments of the code. The main topics under discussion were:

• Review of EC7 with regard to rockmechanics, rock engineering and rock mass characterization
• Use of partial factors and characteristic values in rock engineering
• Use of empirical approaches, and design by prescriptive measures and calculation
• EC7 and the observational method in rock engineering

My address was entitled 'Applicability of Eurocode 7 to rock engineering design' and can be downloaded from this link.

 

2020 vision: future direction of Eurocode 7

Things are finally becoming clearer about the evolution of the Eurocodes and it is time - once again - to consult the general public about what improvement should be made in the 2nd generation of Eurocode 7.

There are two opportunities coming up to find out what is being planned for EN 1997 over the next 5 or 6 years (leading up to the year 2020).

First...

On Tuesday 18th March 2014, at the Annual Workshop for Practitioners and Researchers Eurocode 7 and New Design Challenges, I will give a talk entitled:

2020 vision: future direction of Eurocode 7

Other speakers include Brian Simpson (Arup, UK), Adriaan van Seters (Fugro, Netherlands), Eric Farrell (AGL Consulting, Ireland), Matthew Baldwin (Soil Engineering Geoservices, UK), and Sebastien Burlon (IFSTTAR, France).

Venue is  Arup, 8 Fitzroy Street, London.

Second...

On Wednesday 19th March 2014, the Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS) are holding their 2014 Members Day and AGM at which at I will give the same talk:

2020 vision: future direction of Eurocode 7

Other speakers include Seamus L-Brooks, David Wakerley, Julian Lovell, John Powell,Janice Haines, John Murthy, Neil Parry, Richard Ogden, Paul Nathanail, J Walker, A Odea, and Mervin England.

Venue is  the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albermarle Street, London.

Download 2020 vision - future direction of Eurocode 7.

AGS announce seminar in 2014 on EN ISO 17892

The Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Sprecialists (AGS) has announced a seminar about EN ISO 17892, the forthcoming International, European, and (eventually) British standards for laboratory testing.

BS EN ISO 17892, which is divided into 12 separate parts, will eventually replace BS 1377.

The seminar will be held on Thursday 6th March, 2014, at Friends House, Euston, London and will be presented by UK members on the relevant CEN Working Group.

TC250 in Delft

I am in Delft at the 44th meeting of TC 250, the main committee for the Structural Eurocodes. This is an important meeting, since it sets the ground rules for the forthcoming evolution of the Eurocodes.

Agreement has been reached on adopting CEN's drafting rules for the next generation Eurocodes (known as IR3), but with some variation. Paragraph numbers and the designation 'P' and 'AR' for Principle and Application Rule will be retained (although outside the standard template for a European Standard). Figures, tables, and equations will need to be renumbered 1, 2, 3, etc., not 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, etc. This change brought a lot of debate - some of TC 250's members seem to think they know best how to number these things - despite every other European and ISO standard working differently!

TC 250 also agreed to establish a Chairman's Advisary Panel on ease-of-use and reduction of Nationally Determined Parameters.

Meeting closed for the day at 5.10 pm. More tomorrow.

I will update this post as we go thought the interesting items...

 

eBook

I have been asked whether my book with Andrew Harris, Decoding Eurocode 7, is available in electronic format. And the answer is ....yes!

The Kindle version can be bought from Amazon here.

The Adobe Acrobat version can be bought here.

And, of course, the print version is available here.

At last! Building Regs to refer to Eurocodes

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has finally got around to amending the Building Regulations in England and Wales so that they refer to the Eurocodes. This change, which is long overdue, finally cuts the umbilical cord between the Building Regs and British Standards that were withdrawn in 2010, such as BS 8002 and BS 8004.

Approved Document A will be updated in October 2013.

The January 2012 consultation document admitted that referencing withdrawn standards could be seen as a barrier to trade and an increasing risk of lower levels of structural safety. The withdrawn British Standards are already more than 3 years out-of-date.

 

Here is the webpage for the Building Regulations Advisory Committee and the policy they set out.

 

 

TC250 meeting in Copenhagen

I am writing this while attending the second day of the TC250 meeting in Copenhagen.

Yesterday, we agreed on the final submission to the European Commission in response to its Programming Mandate M515 concerning the Evolution of the Eurocodes. If accepted, this will lead to the second generation of all the Eurocodes ... hopefully greatly improved.

Also decided yesterday was the new Chairman of TC 250, since the current chairman, Jean-Armand Calgaro, is stepping down after 6 years at the helm. Steve Denton of the UK has been elected and - I am sure - will be a good leader during the forthcoming evolution period. Good luck, Steve in your new role!

At the same time, I was re-appointed to the role of Chairman of TC250/SC7, Geotechnical Design for the period 2013-16. My Vice Chairman going forward will be Adriaan van Seters from Fugro, in the Netherlands (a decision taken at the recent SC7 meeting in Madrid).

Today, we are listening to reports from the Chairmen and Chairwomen of the different Sub-Committees (one for each Eurocode). Lots of detailed information that I won't repeat here.

Now we are discussing the format of the future Eurocodes - should they follow the current CEN/CENELEC rules for all European Standards (in my opinion, yes) or continue to follow the old rules that were established over 20 years ago specifically for the Eurocodes (imho, no)? The problem with TC250 is that there are too many people looking backwards and too few looking forward.

Meeting almost over. Time, perhaps, for a casual look around the beautiful city of Copenhagen.

Discussing EQU in Cyprus

I am currently attending a TC250/PT EN 1990 meeting in Limassol, Cyprus, where we are discussing (amongst several other things) the problem of verifying limt state EQU according to the Eurocodes.

PT EN 1990 is the 'project team' (aka 'Expert Group') appointed by TC250 to prepare for the revision of the head Eurocode, EN 1990. Thus, this issues under discussion are fundamental to all structural engineering, not just geotechnical. We are currently debating reliability management, how (if) to adjust partial factors for higher or lower consequences of failure. Not an easy subject on which to reach common agreement, given the very wide range of structures that EN 1990 is intended to cover.

Yesterday I tabled a proposal to combine the limit states STR and EQU (and GEO and EQU) to overcome problems that have been discovered applying the EQU limit state to concrete dams, balanced bridges, and anchored see-saw structures  (to name a few). The proposal basically suggests that the fundamental verification should be of STR+EQU, i.e. the static equilibrium of a structure where the strength of materials provides significant resistance. When static equilbrium (strictly, rigid body motion) is not of concern, the STR+EQU reduced to the 'old' STR defined in the current EN 1990. Likewise, when the resistance of materials is insignificant, STR+EQU reduces to the old EQU.

The proposal was well received at the meeting, but is subject to more thorough review that will expose any flaws in the idea. Here's hoping the proposal is a go-er.

Eurocode 7's new design challenges

Georgios Katsigiannis - Arup Research Engineer at University College,  London - has organized a workshop for young practitioners and researchers at UCL on Tuesday 19 March 2013, staring at 16:30. The workshop is entitled:

Eurocode 7 and New Design Challenges

The workshop aims to encourage young geotechnical engineers to engage with the new European safety codes and design methodologies. Talks by international experts involved in the development of EC7 will be followed by presentations from designers about their experience with EC7 compliant design. Talks announced so far include:

• Some things Eurocode 7 doesn’t say, by Brian Simpson
• Comparison of EC7 design approaches for numerical analysis of deep excavations, by Helmut Schweiger
• Geotechnical design in seismic conditions, by Giuseppe Scarpelli
• Design of top-to-down deep excavations for a metro-line in soft ground according to
  EC7 and German Recommendations, by Christos Vrettos

Attendees need to register their places - as explained on the following flyer.