New Eurocode for Towers, Masts and Chimneys

The Eurocodes are under revision these years as part of the maintenance of the codes for design of structures in Europe under the responsibility of CEN/TC 250. The primary purpose of the maintenance of the Eurocodes is to include the newest knowledge within the field, secondary also to reduce the number of Nationally Determined Parameters (NDPs) to make the Eurocodes more harmonised. Furthermore, will the changes reflect practical experiences gained using the existing codes. However, it is CEN/TC 250 policy to minimise corrigenda to stabilize the Eurocodes. Eurocodes for Steel Structures consist of several parts, among these EN 1993-3-1 ‘Towers and Masts (1) and EN 1993-3-2 Chimneys (2). These two parts are going to be merged into EN 1993-3 ‘Towers, Masts and Chimneys’. A Project Team SC3-T11 consisting of 5 members from 5 countries is preparing the new draft EN 1993-3. However, some parts of these specific standards are related to safety; these will be moved from the old parts to the new EN 1990 ‘Basis of structural Design’. Other parts, related to the wind load will be moved to the updated version of EN 1991-1-4 ‘Actions on Structures, General Actions, Wind Actions’. The Author is the chairman of the Project Team preparing the new draft of the Eurocodes for Towers, Masts and Chimneys (EN 1993-3). He has been engaged with Ramboll for more than 30 years, and has been involved in design of towers and masts over most of Europe. This paper will give an overview over the changes related to towers & masts and chimneys and describes how the number of NPDs will be minimized. © 2019 Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.