Proposal of guidelines for the evolution of robustness framework in the future generation of Eurocodes

摘要

The main objective of the present paper is to suggest guidelines for the improvement of how robustness is treated in future generations of the Eurocodes, namely concerning the design philosophy and the design requirements. It is now widely recognised that robustness has a governing role in attaining sustainable and resilient infrastructures. Without surprise, robustness was identified by the European Commission as one of the key additions to the existing Eurocodes under the presently ongoing revisions. This should be seen as a stimulus to develop updated (or new), rational, accurate, and practical design methodologies and requirements for robustness, extending and enhancing current coverage of robustness in the Eurocodes. This paper starts by reviewing how robustness is treated in the Eurocodes, pin-pointing the limitations of the existing design framework. Subsequently, a performance-based design framework for robustness is proposed that allows designers to determine if a given structure is sufficiently robust. Different levels of sophistication are proposed to cater for different levels of classes of structures. Therefore, the suggested approach enables the best available knowledge and the latest technologies to be applied in a way that is acceptable for practitioners, promoting competitiveness, cost-effectiveness and sustainability in design and innovation.