Geotechnical Design based on Eurocode 7

1. Eurocodes for Civil Engineering The Eurocode programme for structural design consists of a set of standards for design in civil engineering: Eurocode 0: Basis of structural design: Eurocode 1: Actions on Structures: Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete Structures: Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures: Eurocode 4: Design of Composite Steel and Concrete Structures: Eurocode 5: Design of Timber Structures: Eurocode 6: Design of Masonry Structures: Eurocode 7: Geotechnical Design: Eurocode 8: Design of Structures for Earthquake Resistance: Eurocode 9: Design of Aluminium Structures: EN 1990 EN 1991 EN 1992 EN 1993 EN 1994 EN 1995 EN 1996 EN 1997 EN 1998 EN 1999

2. Development of Eurocode 7 1976: the European Commission decided to sponsor development of European codes of practice for building structures 1980: it was decided that the ISSMFE (International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering) should start a survey of existing geotechnical codes 1987: the first draft model for Eurocode 7 for geotechnical design was presented from 1990: the work on Eurocodes was continued by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) 1993: the first preliminary standard ENV 1997-1 was ratified 2004: after inquiries about comments from the European states and several subsequent drafts of the standard, the European standard EN 1997-1 (Eurocode 7: Geotechnical Design, Part 1: General Rules) was approved and the three language versions in the official EU languages English, French and German were finished until end of 2006: in a calibration period of two years, the member states had to write the National Annex (NA) until end of 2009: a three-year coexistence period is running, then EC 7-1 will be valid in all member states of the EU from 2010: national standards covering the same items as EC 7-1 will have to be withdrawn and no national standards with conflict to EC 7-1 will be allowed. Eurocode 7 consists of two parts : Eurocode 7-1 for geotechnical design Eurocode 7-2 for ground investigation and testing

3. Principle of Ultimate Limit States The aim of design based on Eurocode is to prevent ultimate limit states (ULS), which lead to a state where a construction would collapse or can not be used any more. In addition, a serviceability limit state (SLS) has to be fulfilled. The following limit states are defined in EC 7: - EQU = equilibrium, e.g. to prevent overturning - GEO = geotechnical failure (ground)

- STR = failure of structural elements - HYD = hydraulic limit states, e.g. piping - UPL = uplift Eurocode 7 defines how to use safety factors in the different limit states.

4. Approach of Partial Safety Factors In former design codes, global safety factors were often used: in an analysis, there was only one safety factor. Examples: calculation of the required length of an excavation pit wall: active earth pressure and uploads were applied with their real (characteristic) value = working load and the passive earth pressure was divided by a safety factor p = 1.50. design of a reinforced concrete section: the calculation was done with the working loads and we applied a safety factor, e.g. 1.75 or 2.10, on the material parameters of concrete and steel. In the Eurocodes, we apply partial safety factors to loads (actions) and resistances: loads are multiplied with a safety factor >= 1.0, resistances are divided by a safety factor >= 1.0. Stabilizing actions (favourable loads) are multiplied by a safety factor <= 1.0. Safety factors are applied to Actions (loads) Material parameters (soil) Resistances (e.g. passive earth pressure) Parameters with their real values, without safety factors, are named characteristic values with an index k: Ek = characteristic actions (working loads), Rk = characteristic resistances. Parameters with safety factors are named design values with an index d: Ed = design actions, Rd = design resistances. 5. Design Approaches In different countries, there were traditionally different approaches for design (i.e. how, when and where to use which safety factors). For Eurocode 7, the different countries could not find one common method to proceed. Therefore, it was decided to provide a choice of three design approaches, while every country could decide which one to use. Additionally, the different states can define the special safety factors to be used for design. For the most important limit states, GEO and STR, there is the choice between three possible design approaches (DA): Design approach 1 (e.g. selected by Great Britain and Italy): two combinations have to be checked: Combination 1 with partial factors on actions, factors 1.0 on materials and resistances Combination 2 with partial factors on materials, factors 1.0 on actions (except variable actsion) and resistances The most unfavorable combination has to be used.

Design approach 2 (e.g. selected by Germany, Switzerland and Austria, except for slope stability): Partial factors on actions and resistances, factors 1.0 on materials

Design approach 3 (e.g. selected by Germany, Switzerland and Austria for slope stability): Partial factors on the materials, factors 1.0 on actions from the ground and resistances (factors > 1.0 on actions from the structure, which are independent from soil material)

6. National Implementation of Eurocode 7 Eurocode 7 is transferred to national standards in the following format: National Title Page National Foreword EN Title Page EN Text EN Annexes National Annex

Eurocode 7 contains the following choices (Nationally Determined Parameters NDPs) which may be selected differently in any member state: choice of one of the 3 Design Approaches for GEO and STR limit states values of the partial safety factors These NDPs are defined in the National Annex. Some of the national standards versions of EC 7-1 are: Germany: DIN EN 1997-1 (2004) Austria: OENORM EN 1997-1 (2006) Great Britain: British Standard BS EN 1997-1 (2004)

7. Safety factors in Eurocode 7 How do we use the partial safety factors ? The parameters for geotechnical design fall into three groups: actions (loads), with abbreviation A materials (soil parameters), with abbreviation M resistances (passive earth pressure, sliding and bearing capacity resistance, etc.), with abbreviation R Eurocode 7 defines different sets of safety factors for these three groups and the different design approaches define which sets to use. There are standard safety factors proposed by Eurocode, but any state is free to define the values of the factors together with the selected design approach (DA 1, DA 2 or DA 3) in the National Annex (NA). The following sets of safety factors are available for the GEO and STR limit states: Actions Permanent loads, unfavorable Permanent loads, favorable Variable loads, unfavorable Variable loads, favorable A1 1.35 1.00 1.50 0.00 A2 1.00 1.00 1.30 0.00

Materials Angle of internal friction tan() Cohesion c Undrained cohesion cu Unit weight

M1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

M2 1.25 1.25 1.40 1.00

Resistances Sliding resictance Bearing capacity resistance Passive earth pressure End bearing for bore piles Skin friction for bore piles, compress. Skin friction for bore piles, tension other pile types

R1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.25 1.00 1.25

R2 1.40 1.10 1.40 1.10 1.10 1.15

R3 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.10

R4

1.60 1.30 1.60

Application in the Design Approaches For the GEO and STR limit states, the three possible design approaches use different sets of partial safety factors: Design approach 1 with two combinations: Combination 1: A1 + M1 (= 1) + R1 (= 1) Combination 2: A2 (= 1) + M2 + R1 (= 1) for piles: Combination 1: A1 + M1 (= 1) + R1 (= 1) Combination 2: A2 (= 1) + (M1 (= 1) or M2) + R4 (M1 for pile resistance, M2 for unfavorable actions like negative skin friction or transversal loads) Design approach 2: A1 + M1 (= 1) + R2 safety factors on loads and resistances safety factors on loads safety factors on materials (soil)

Design approach 3: A2 (= 1) + M2 + R3 (= 1) (A1 for loads from the structure without influence of soil material parameters)

The most important difference in Design approaches 2 and 3 is if the safety factors are applied to the resistances (e.g. passive earth pressure) or to the soil parameters (e.g. tan() and c, where the passive earth pressure is calculated from.

For the other limit states, the sets of safety factors are fixed (no choice of design approach).

8. Geotechnical checks Having decided which safety factors and where to use them, we start with characteristic values and transfer them with safety factors to design values. Geotechnical checks have to fulfill the following inequality: Ed <= Rd Actions (influences) are multiplied by the safety factor, while resistances are divided by the safety factor: Ed = E * Ek Md = Mk / M Rd = Rk / R 9. Special considerations We have to pay attention to the fact that there are details not defined explicitly in Eurocode 7, which have great influence on the results: for example, for bearing capacity calculation we use the load inclination = H/V and the reduced width b = b 2*e with e = M/V (eccentricity of the load). When using German standards, these values are calculated using characteristic values: = Hk / Vk e = Mk / Vk while in an analysis based on British Standard, the values are calculated using design values: = Hd / Vd e = Md / Vd If for example the horizontal load and the moment are variable loads, while the vertical load is permanent, H and M will have a larger safety factor than V. In this case, the approach using design values leads to more unfavorable values. On the other hand side, DA 1 uses lower safety factors (R1 instead of R2) than DA 2. This way, it depends on the type and size of loads which result will be more or less favorable.