EC 2 for practitioners

The revision of Eurocodes 2 (EC 2) “Design of concrete structures” is in full swing. There is general agreement as to which of the improvements are necessary: the many nationally defined parameters (NDP) make Europe-wide application of the standards and attestations of the conformity of the products difficult. The purpose of the revisions is to reduce the number of NPDs as much as possible. In addition, the attempt will be made to more clearly structure EC 2, widely considered as confusing, and to design it to be more user-friendly. Experts still seem to be at odds as to what extent design rules and attestations should be either constructively revised or replaced.

Technical Committee 250 (CEN/TC 250) and its Sub-Committee 2 (SC 2) are responsible for the revision at the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). The actual editorial revision takes place in Working Group WG 1. Experts expressly demand that practicing engineers participate in the revision, particularly since they are, after all, the ones who must later work with the Eurocode. Engineers interested in participation can work directly in WG 1 and its tasks groups. The associations of the precast concrete industry are also a good contact – in particular, the Association of German Precast Construction (FDB), which is represented in WG 1. You will find the standpoint taken by our most important German association partner on the subject of EC 2 revision in this issue as “Position,” on pages 68 and 69.

The future orientation of the precast industry can also be gauged from the submissions for the Innovation Arize of the Supplier Industry for Concrete Components. As announced earlier, we present all submissions in this issue for the award during the spring of 2016, in conjunction with the BetonTage in Neu-Ulm (pp. 8–24).