ENG2018 Design of Building Elements

Lecture 1 Introduction to Eurocodes, limiting states relevant for structural design of steel and concrete
structures,

Lecture Outline
• Introduction to Eurocodes
• Introduction to reliability theory
• limiting states relevant for structural design of steel and concrete structures,
• Target reliabilities
• Load factors

At the end of the lecture and with appropriate revision and further reading you should:
• Understand the purpose of a European wide system of structural codes
• Understand the principles of structural reliability
• Understand the relevant limiting states for the design of structures
• Understand the load factors to apply to characteristic loadings to obtain the different
limiting states 1
 Structural Analysis and Design
Structural Structural
Analysis Design

Determines how the applied forces distribute We design structures by proposing a structural system consisting of
themselves through the structure as they are members and connections, then calculating what stresses are
transferred to the ground induced in these members and whether or not these are acceptable.

For both of these we use scientific/mathematical models to quantify these and therefore predict their likely
behaviour.
Remember these are models and therefore the numbers we calculate are not exact but rather
approximations and therefore it is important to understand how valid and accurate the models we use are

In the case of structural analysis we ensure the structure is in static In the case of structural design, we may
equilibrium (if it is not, then it is accelerating and this usually means it is calculate the stress in a tension member as
𝑃
accelerating towards the ground – i.e. falling down). 𝜎=
𝐴
For a 2D problem, equilibrium can be defined as And then limit this stress to the yield stress
SH=0, SV = 0, SM = 0 of the material

Both of these models have assumptions that may not always be valid and it is important you know when and when they are not valid
 What are Eurocodes
• The Eurocodes are a set of European Standards (EN)
for the design of buildings and other civil engineering
works and construction products. (They will continue
to be used in the UK after Brexit)
• Part of their purpose is to
– lead to more uniform levels of safety in
construction in Europe
– provide common design criteria and methods to
fulfil the specified requirements for mechanical
resistance, stability and resistance to fire, including
aspects of durability and economy;
– provide a common understanding between owners,
operators and users, designers, contractors and
manufacturers;
– We have a free online subscription to the
Eurocodes through the library see
https://bsol-bsigroup-com.libproxy.ncl.ac.uk/
 European legislation
• The Eurocodes serve as reference documents for the following
purposes:
• as a means to prove compliance of building and civil
engineering works with the Essential Requirements of the
Construction Products Directive – CPD (Directive 89/106/EEC)
• as a basis for specifying contracts for public construction
works and related engineering services (Directive
2004/18/EC);
• as a framework for drawing up harmonised technical
specifications for construction products.
• While the laws of physics are universal, some aspects of the
codes are local, for example how much snow a roof may need
to resist or the strength of the wind trying to blow over a
building. These values are contained in a National Annex
(NA)
• The NA should not specify different material properties as
materials should be consistently specified throughout Europe,
nor should it use different structural models (although this
latter point is not always the case)
 Eurocodes

Eurocode0: Basis of structural design EN1990

Eurocode 1: Actions on structures EN1991
Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures EN1992
Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures EN1993
Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and concrete structures EN1994
Eurocode 5: Design of timber structures EN1995
Eurocode 6: Design of masonry structures EN1996
Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design EN1997
Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance EN1998
Eurocode 9: Design of aluminium structures EN1999
 References to Eurocode

• Any numbers in green on the LEFT hand side of

the slide are clause numbers from Eurocode

• Any numbers in green on the RIGHT hand side

of the slide are equation numbers from
Eurocode

• Any equation number with * has been simplified

from what appears in the code.

*
 Notation

• Notation is complex and will confuse you; however remember that “R” stands for
resistance and “E” for effect and that resistance must be greater than effect for example
–TRd,max The maximum design resistance in Tension
–NEd Design value of applied axial force (tension or compression)
–fctk,0.05 The lower fifth percentile of the characteristic tensile concrete stress
• “F” force, “f” stress

• a principle clause is a clause that must be met and is designated by (P)

• You will get the hang of it.

• See Eurocode Notation_2020.doc for a list of notation

end of section 1

8
 EN1990 Basis of structural design

• establishes for all the structural Eurocodes the Principles and Requirements for safety,
serviceability and durability of structures.

• provides the basis for the structural design and verification of buildings and civil
engineering works and gives guidelines for related aspects of structural reliability.

• The Eurocodes provide common structural design rules for everyday use for the design of

structures and products of both a traditional and an innovative nature.

 Limit State Design Principles

• All Eurocodes have adopted the limit state design philosophy

– The concept of limit states design, recognizes that there are a number of performance
criteria that our structures are required to meet and if they do not meet any of these
criteria (or limiting states) then they are deemed to have failed.
– The consequences of failure are different for different limiting states and therefore we
have different probabilities of failure associated with each limit state.
Individual Risk of Death Source missing

Approx Death Rate Typical exposure Typical risk of

Activity (x10-9 deaths / hour Hours/year Death (x10-6/year)
exposure)
Alpine climbing 30 000-40 000 50 1500-2000

Boating 1500 80 120

Swimming 3500 50 170
Cigarette smoking 2500 400 1000

Air travel 1200 20 24

Car travel 700 300 200
Train travel 80 200 15
Coal mining 210 1500 300
Construction work 70-200 2200 150-440

Manufacturing 20 2000 40

Building fires 1-3 8000 8-24

Structural failures .02 6000 0.1

Winning national .07 52 3.71

lottery
 Let’s see what you have learnt

• What is the probability of a person being

killed by a meteor
a) 0
b) 1 in a trillion
c) 1 in a million
d) 1 in a thousand
ANS: 1 in 700 000
Lets to the math: dinosaur killing meteorite occurs
once every 100 million years and we live for 70 years.
If this meteor kills everyone then probability of dying
in any one year is p=100x106/70 = 1 in 1.5x106, if we
include less dramatic events this reduces to approx 1
in 700 000
 Reliability
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

5%
95%

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 Increasing resistance reduces probability of failure
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 Safety Index

Probability of b
• Measured by b factors failure Pf

• b = mg / sg 10-1 1.28
10-2 2.32
10-3 3.09
10-4 3.72
10-5 4.27
10-6 4.75
10-7 5.20
 Consequences of failure include the consideration of:

➢ Loss of human life (sometimes called the safety of people).

➢ Environment and social consequences (eg: when a failure causes an

environmental catastrophe).

➢ Economic consequences (eg: the cost of replacement of a building and its

contents and the cost of the loss of its use).
Reliability Differentiation

• Eurocode divides consequences into 3 classes

➢ Consequences class CC3: high consequence for loss of
human life, or economic, social or environmental
consequences very great.

➢ Consequences class CC2: medium consequence for loss

of human life, economic, social or environmental
consequences considerable

➢ Consequences class CC1: low consequences for loss of

human life, and economic, social or environmental
consequences small or negligible.
 Consequence class matrix
Consequences of failurea

Frequency of Use Lowb Mediumc Highd

Low CC1 CC2 CC3

Medium CC2 CC2 CC3

High Not CC3 CC3

Applicable

b Includes agricultural buildings where people do not normally enter, sheds and greenhouses.
C Includes hotels, schools, residential bridges and access bridges (eg: to farms).
d Includes grandstands, theatres, significant high-rise buildings and bridges.
 Consequences and reliability classes, and values for the reliability index

Values for b

Ultimate limit states Fatigue Serviceability

_________________ _______________ _______________

Consequences Reliability Class 1yr Reference 50yr Reference 1yr Reference 50yr Reference 1yr Reference 50yr Reference
Class perioda perioda perioda perioda perioda perioda

CC3 RC3 5.2 4.3

CC2 RC2 4.7 3.8 1.5-3.8 2.9 1.5

CC1 RC1 4.2 3.3

a The values for b Are recommended minimum values in columns 3 and 4

Note Consequence Class and Reliability class can be considered to be synonymous (i.e. they are the same thing)
Design Life
 Theory is all well and good, but…
• Procedure is very mathematical
• Our acceptable probability of failure is very low and therefore the loads we are dealing
with are very rare; this make it extremely difficult to assess them accurately.
• Is there and easier way?
• Yes!
– Introduce standard “limiting states” that we must design for and assign different
characteristic loads depending on the usage of the building and the environment it is
located in.
– Then use different load factors for each limiting state that account for the variability in
the loading model and probability of occurrence and material factors to account for the
variability in the material models
 Reliability
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

Size of shaded region

gives an indication of the
relative probability of
0.25
failure

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 Increasing resistance reduces probability of failure
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 What about variability/uncertainty?
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 Increasing variability/uncertainty in load or material increases
probability of failure
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
Therefore we need to make structures stronger for more variable/uncertain loadings to have
the same probability of failure, we do this by increasing the loads they are required to resist
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
 Similarly a less consistent material will also lead to a greater
probability of failure
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
So we need to increase the strength of our structures to maintain safety
(actually in our calculations we reduce the strength of our materials)
1

0.75

Load
Frequency

Resistance
0.5

0.25

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Magnitude
• End of Section 2
 Limiting states

Eurocode requires us to consider a number of performance

targets (limiting states). These are
• Ultimate Limit State
• Serviceability Limit State
 Ultimate Limit States

The ultimate limit state is concerned with:

• The safety of people
• The safety of the structure
• Loss of equilibrium
• Strength (onset of damage)
• Fatigue
 Serviceability Limit States

The serviceability limit state is concerned with:

• Function of the structure

• The comfort of people

• The appearance of the structure (e.g. cracking)

 Actions

The limit states are checked by combining different actions together. What
intensity of action, and what to combine it with depends on how likely each
action is and how likely it is to occur in combination with others and what
limit state is being considered.
actions to consider are:
– Permanent
– Variable
– Accidental
 Actions / Loads

• The following notation is adopted in EC1:

• Dead loads - G
• Imposed loads - Q
• Snow loads - Q
• Wind loads - W
• Accidental loads - A
• Suffices inf and sup are used to signify lower and upper bound values
respectively
 Y Factors
Used to change imposed loads from characteristic 95% values to other percentiles
 Ultimate Limit state Load Factors

• Equilibrium

• Strength
– Permanent Actions
• Unfavourable g = 1.35
• Favourable g = 0.9
– Variable Actions
• By itself g = 1.50
• With other actions g = 1.5, 1.05 (0.9 favourable)
 Serviceability Load Factors

• Must consider
– Actions that are reversible (e.g. deflection)

– Actions that are irreversible (cracking of non-structural components)

– Actions that are short term (e.g. people)

– Actions that are quasi permanent (e.g. non-structural components such as internal

walls)
 Combination of loads

• Load combinations can be simplified as:

• Ultimate Limit State:
– gG Gk + gQ,1 Qk1 + SgQ Y0 Qk (i>1)

– 0.9 Gk + 0 Qk (Where loads have a beneficial effect)

• Serviceability Limit State:
– Characteristic (irreversible)
• Gk + Qk1 + SY0Qk
– Frequent (reversible)
• Gk + Y1 Qk1 + S Y2 Qk
– (quasi-permanent – long term effects)
• Gk + S Y2 Qk
where Qk1 is the dominant imposed load, and
SQk = sum of the other imposed loads
• To simplify Even further, for this module we will use:

• Ultimate Limit State

– 1.35 Gk + 1.5 Qk1
• Serviceability Limit state
– 1.0 Gk + Qk1 (for deflection causing damage to non-structural members)
– 1.0 Gk + S Y2 Qk (quasi-permanent)

– Y2 will be given or you will look it up in a table

 Material Factors
Not only do we have to increase the loads by load factors, but we must also reduce
the material strengths as well. A high material load factor means the material is
either variable or its behaviour is not well understood

Partial Factors for Structural Steel

Type of Action or member Partial factor (gM)

Strength gM0 = 1.0

Instability gM1 = 1.0

Fracture in tension gM2 = 1.25

Connections gMc = 1.0 – 1.25

 Design requirement

• We must ensure that the factored loads are smaller than the strengths of
our designs divided by the material factors

i.e. WEd < WRd

Where WEd = design effect (g load)

and WRd = design resistance (strength/g)

 Summary
• Structures are designed to a number of limit states
• The consequences of failure for each limit state are different and so there is a different probability of failure for
each limit state
• The probability of failure should be identical for each consequence (usually consequence is related to the function
of the building)
• Loads are multiplied by load factors to take account of the variability of the loading and the uncertainties in the
loading model
• Material properties are divided by a material factor to take account of the variability in properties and the
inaccuracy in the structural model
• In this module we will be using the following
• Ultimate Limit State
– 1.35 Gk + 1.5 Qk
• Serviceability Limit state
– 1.0 Gk + Qk (for deflection causing damage to non-structural members)
– 1.0 Gk + S Y1 Qk (for deflection causing issues with visibility)
– Y1 will be given or you will look it up in a table A 1.1.
 Example
The concrete office building shown in the figure is to be designed for an imposed load of 4.0 kPa
If the density of concrete is 24kN/m3 and the modulus of elasticity Ec = 35 000 MPa
For beam B1
1. Calculate the design load for the ultimate limit state. (is it strong enough)
2. Calculate the design load for the irreversible serviceability limit state (deflections cause cracking of non-structural elements)
3. Calculate the quasi-permanent serviceability limit state (used to calculate deflections due to creep. timber or concrete)

A
8000

750 x 400 beams spanning 8000

300 slab

gc= 24kN/m3 Beam B1 5 𝑤𝐿4

𝛿=
6000 6000
384 𝐸𝐼
6000

Section A-A

See video for example