A Designers’ Simple Guide to BS EN 1997









1. ‘A DESIGNERS’ SIMPLE GUIDE TO BS EN 1997’

1.1. Introduction to the new EU geotechnical Codes and Standards

The current suite of BS Codes and Standards will, in due course, be

almost entirely replaced by a system of Eurocodes and Standards / ENs


published by BSI as BS ENs; it is expected that the replacement will be

complete by about 2010


2
.

The Eurcodes adopt, for all civil and building engineering materials and

structures, a common design philosophy based on the use of separate

limit states



3

and partial factors, rather than ‘global’ factors (of safety); this

is a substantial departure from much traditional geotechnical design

practice as embodied in BS Codes such as BS 8004. Furthermore, the

geotechnical design Eurocode (BS EN 1997-1) provides one, unified

methodology for all geotechnical design problems; an advantage of BS EN

1997-1 is that its design methodology is largely identical with that for all of

the structural Eurocodes, making the integration of geotechnical design

with structural design more rational.

Reaching agreement between the EU Member States on this unified

geotechnical methodology resulted in what might initially appear to be a

rather complicated system of equations for use in design calculations; in

addition, it led to the introduction of concepts and terminology that may not

be familiar to many designers of foundations and other geotechnical

structures. For these reasons, it was felt appropriate to provide this Guide

to help people to interpret the new geotechnical Eurocode system of

Codes and Standards and to understand how this system will eventually

replace the current BS Codes and Standards.


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