Just published - JRC Report on the reliability background of the Eurocodes

According to EN 1990, reliability is the ability of a structure to fulfil the specified requirements during the service life for which it has been designed, encompassing safety, serviceability and durability. 

While in this sense structural reliability is the concern of all parts of the whole suite of Eurocodes, this Technical Report focuses on the way uncertainties are dealt with in design and assessment, describing advanced probabilistic and semi-probabilistic approach, with their underlying relationship.

First, relevant basic notions such as uncertainty, probability, risk, member and system failure, time dependency, effects of deterioration and inspection, etc. are introduced. Then, the basic reliability requirements in EN 1990 are put in relationship with the persistent as well as the accidental and seismic design situations, paying particular attention to the new materials (glass, fibre reinforced polymers and membrane structures) included in the second generation of the Eurocodes. Moreover, the report covers special problems that may arise in assessment of existing structures are treated, as well as the explicit risk and full probability methods. Finally, the report provides the reader with a state-of-the-art overview of probabilistic models for actions, material properties and model uncertainties, and a number of example applications related to various parts of the theory.

The authors of the report are international experts of the CEN/TC 250/SC 10 Ad-Hoc Group on the reliability background in the Eurocodes. Other experts also contributed to specific parts.

This JRC Technical Report belongs to the series 'Support to the implementation, harmonization and further development of the Eurocodes'. It can be freely accessed, downloaded and shared at the links below.