PSI - Issue 19

2

Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

Mladen Lukić / Procedia Structural Integrity 19 (2019) 655–664

656

Peer-review under responsibility of the Fatigue Design 2019 Organizers.

Keywords: fatigue, steel construction, standardization, Eurocodes

1. Context of Eurocodes In 1975, the Commission of the European Community decided on an action programme in the field of construction, based on article 95 of the Treaty of Rome. The objective of the programme was to eliminate technical obstacles to trade through harmonization of technical specifications. It was considered that disparities in design / calculation methods of national building regulations constitute impediments to the free circulation of engineering and architectural services within the Community. The Commission took the initiative for the establishment of a set of harmonized technical rules for the design of construction works as a replacement of the national rules in use in the member states of the Community to facilitate the provision of services in the field of construction engineering and architecture. For almost fifteen years, the Commission, with the help of a steering committee with representatives of the member states, conducted the development of the Eurocodes programme through European professional organizations. For metal (steel and aluminium) construction, it was the ECCS (European Convention for Constructional Steelwork), association of national constructional steelwork associations of stakeholders in metal construction industry (steel producers, fabricators, construction companies). Council Directive 89/106/EEC (the Construction Products Directive) set six Essential Requirements to support the establishment and functioning of the internal market for construction products indicating that the products must be suitable for the construction works throughout The Community. In consequence, in 1989, the Commission, the member states and the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) decided to transfer the preparation and the publication of the Eurocodes to the CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation / European Committee for Standardization) through a series of mandates, in order to provide them with a future status of European Standard (EN). The Eurocodes were developed to enable the design of structural construction works complying with the Essential Requirement n°1 (mechanical resistance and stability) and partially Essential Requirements n°2 (safety in case of fire) and n°4 (safety in use) and to determine the performance of structural construction products. This links them de facto with the provisions of all the Commission's Decisions dealing with European standards (currently e.g. Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 and Directive 2014/24/EU). The first, “experimental”, Eurocodes started to appear at the beginning of the 90s. Those ones were in turn superseded by the actual Eurocodes, from 2003 to 2007. The result is a set of 10 standards, divided into 58 specific parts, and totaling some 5000 pages. In order to allow countries using Eurocodes to decide on safety levels, and to give national geographic and climatic data, the so-called NDPs (Nationally Determined Parameters) were developed and given in NAs (National Annexes) to different parts of Eurocodes. Nevertheless, the inclusion of NDPs in the published Eurocodes has been more extensive than was originally envisaged: there are 1055 NDPs actually. The standard dealing with steel construction is Eurocode 3, actually divided in 20 parts, on some 1250 pages. The number of NDPs is 236. The part dealing with fatigue of steel structures is Part 1-9, officially designated EN 1993 1-9:2005. The number of NDPs included is 11.

2. Revision of Eurocodes 2.1. Response to Mandate M/515 EN (2012)

To ensure their application over time, the Eurocodes need to be updated to take into account developments on the market (new materials, products, methods, etc). Mandate M/466 (2010) was firstly established in line with the agreement in the ENC (Eurocodes National Correspondents) meeting on 1 July 2009 following discussions on issues