Background to Eurocode 2

The background to Eurocode 2 can be traced back to 1975 and the Treaty of Rome. The European Commission asked CEN (Centre European de Normalisation) to draft structural design standards that could be used across the Common Market.

The first published draft of Eurocode 2 was produced in 1985. Following a period of comment, the voluntary ENV version was produced in 1993. After another period of comment, the current version of EN 1992 was produced under UK Chairmanship and secretariat and published in 2004. The main background is considered to be fib Model Code 1990 but provisions were modified in committee.

The 2nd generation of Eurocode 2 has now been published by BSI and further information is available here.

Given the scale of the change and the interaction with other codes of practice, BSI have decided to provide an overlap period where both the existing and the new code are available, although under CEN rules the existing code will need to be withdrawn in 2028.

Further information on the Eurocodes:

• About the EN Eurocodes
• Standardisation for 2G Eurocodes

Table 1: The progression of Eurocode 2 in relation to UK standards and CEB/fip (now fib) Model Codes.

CEN/TC 250

The maintenance of all of the Eurocodes are being supervised by the head European structural design committee, CEN TC250. The current priority for TC250 is the response to Mandate M/515 (Dec 2012) for ‘amending existing Eurocodes and extending the scope of structural Eurocodes’. This involves:

• Adding rules for assessment, re-use and retrofitting of existing structures
• Strengthening of the requirements for robustness
• Improving the practical use for day-to-day calculations
• Adding a new Eurocode on structural glass
• Incorporating of ISO Standards into the Eurocodes family, such as atmospheric icing of structures and actions from waves and currents on coastal structures.

In 2014, TC250 undertook a systematic review of all Eurocodes and comments received were used and/or disseminated to subcommittees. A Chairman’s Advisory Panel conferred and determined that the primary audience for the revised standards was to be practicing engineers and the prime target was to be ease of use.

Redrafting of the Eurocodes is undertaken initially by Project Teams and then by the CEN committee and working groups under them.

CEN/TC 250/SC2  

The committee dealing with Eurocode 2, CEN/TC 250/SC2 started work on the revision of EN1992 in 2014. Its Working Group, SC2/WG1, had responsibility overall for the revision, for editing and for 10 Task Groups:

TG 1: Fibre reinforced strengthening
TG 2: Fibre reinforced concrete
TG 3: Assessment
TG 4: Shear, punching shear & torsion
TG 5: Fire
TG 6: Structural analysis
TG 7: Time dependent effects
TG 8: Fatigue
TG 9: Bridges
TG 10/JWG: Serviceability Design

BSI B525/2

The UK mirror committee to CEN/TC 250/SC2, B525/2, oversaw the UK’s review of and commenting on the draft code as it was developed. B525/2 had representatives on the Working Group and each of the TGs above. The main task for B525/2 is now to develop the UK National Annex.