This Manual provides guidance on the design of reinforced and prestressed concrete build-
ing structures. Structures designed in accordance with this Manual will normally comply
with DD ENV 1992-1-1: 19921 (hereinafter referred to as EC2).
The structural Eurocodes were initiated by the European Commission but are now pro-
duced by the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) which is the European standards
organization, its members being the national standards bodies of the EU and EFTA coun-
tries, e.g. BSI.
CEN will eventually publish these design standards as full European Standards EN
(Euronorms), but initially they are being issued as Prestandards ENV. Normally an ENV
has a life of about 3 years to permit familiarization and trial use of the standard by mem-
ber states. After formal voting by the member bodies, ENVs are converted into ENs tak-
ing into account the national comments on the ENV document. At present the following
Eurocode parts have been published as ENVs but as yet none has been converted to an EN:
DD ENV 1991-1-1: Basis of design and actions on structures (EC1)
DD ENV 1992-1-1: Design of concrete structures (EC2)
DD ENV 1993-1-1: Design of steel structures (EC3)
DD ENV 1994-1-1: Design of composite steel and concrete structures (EC4)
DD ENV 1995-1-1: Design of timber structures (EC5)
DD ENV 1996-1-1: Design of masonry structures (EC6)
DD ENV 1997-1-1: Geotechnical design (EC7)
DD ENV 1998-1-1: Earthquake resistant design of structures (EC8)
DD ENV 1999-1-1: Design of aluminium alloy structures (EC9)
Each Eurocode is published in a number of parts, usually with ‘General rules’ and ‘Rules
for buildings’ in Part 1. The various parts of EC2 are:
Part 1.1 General rules and rules for buildings;
Part 1.2 Supplementary rules for structural fire design;
Part 1.3 Supplementary rules for precast concrete elements and structures;
Part 1.4 Supplementary rules for the use of lightweight aggregate concrete;
Part 1.5 Supplementary rules for the use of unbonded and external prestressing tendons;
Part 1.6 Supplementary rules for plain or lightly reinforced concrete structures;
Part 2.0 Reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges;
Part 3.0 Concrete foundations;
Part 4.0 Liquid retaining and containment structures.
All Eurocodes follow a common editorial style. The codes contain ‘Principles’ and
‘Application rules’. Principles are general statements, definitions, requirements and some-
times analytical models. All designs must comply with the Principles, and no alternative is
permitted.
Application rules are rules commonly adopted in design. They follow the Principles and
IStructE EC2 (Concrete) Design Manual 11
satisfy their requirements. Alternative rules may be used provided that compliance with the
Principles can be demonstrated.
Some parameters in Eurocodes are designated by | _ | , commonly referred to as boxed
values. The boxed values in the Codes are indicative guidance values. Each member state
is required to fix the boxed value applicable within its jurisdiction. Such information would
be found in the National Application Document (NAD) which is published as part of each
ENV.
There are also other purposes for NADs. NAD is meant to provide operational infor-
mation to enable the ENV to be used. For certain aspects of the design, the ENV may refer
to national standards or to CEN standard in preparation or ISO standards. The NAD is
meant to provide appropriate guidance including modifications required to maintain com-
patibility between the documents. Very occasionally the NAD might rewrite particular
clauses of the code in the interest of safety or economy. This is however rare.
The range of structures and structural elements covered by the Manual is limited to build-
ing structures that do not rely on bending in columns for their resistance to horizontal
forces and are also non-sway. This will be found to cover the vast majority of all reinforced
and prestressed concrete building structures. In using the Manual the following should be
noted:
• The Manual has been drafted to comply with ENV 1992-1-1 together with the UK NAD
• Although British Standards have been referenced as loading codes in Sections 3 and 6,
to comply with the UK NAD, the Manual can be used in conjunction with other load-
ing codes
• The structures are braced and non-sway
• The concrete is of normal weight
• The structure is predominantly in situ
• Prestressed concrete members have bonded or unbonded internal tendons
• The Manual can be used in conjunction with all commonly used materials in construc-
tion; however the data given are limited to the following:
– concrete up to characteristic cylinder strength of 50N/mm2 (cube strength 60N/mm2)
– high-tensile reinforcement with characteristic strength of 460N/mm2
– mild-steel reinforcement with characteristic strength of 250N/mm2
– prestressing tendons with 7-wire low-relaxation (Class 2) strands
• High ductility (Class H) has been assumed for:
– all ribbed bars and grade 250 bars, and
– ribbed wire welded fabric in wire sizes of 6mm or over
• Normal ductility (Class N) has been assumed for plain or indented wire welded fabric.
For structures or elements outside this scope EC2 should be used.
The Manual covers the following design stages:
• general principles that govern the design of the layout of the structure
• initial sizing of members
• estimating of quantities of reinforcement and prestressing tendons
• final design of members.
12 IStructE EC2 (Concrete) Design Manual
