Chapter 8: Ultimate limit states
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Published:2025
Roger P Johnson, Stephen J Hicks, 2025. "Ultimate limit states", Designers' Guide to EN 1994-1-1: 2026 Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and concrete structures: Part 1.1: General rules and rules for buildings, Roger P Johnson, Stephen J Hicks
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This chapter corresponds to Section 8 of EN 1994-1-1, which has the following clauses.
Clauses 8.1 to 8.6 and 8.8 define resistances of cross-sections to static loading, for comparison with action effects determined by the methods of Section 7. The ultimate limit state considered is defined in clause 5.3(3) of EN 1990 as
For lateral-torsional buckling of beams and for columns, the resistance is influenced by the properties of the whole member, and there is an implicit assumption that the member is of uniform cross-section, apart from variations arising from cracking of concrete and from detailing.
Most of the provisions of Section 8 are applicable to both buildings and bridges, but a number of clauses are headed ‘for buildings’, and are replaced by other clauses in EN 1994-2. Some of these differences arise from the different treatments of shear connection for the two types of structure, which are compared in comments on clause 8.1.1. Clause 8.7, ‘Fatigue’, refers to EN 1994-2 for fatigue checks and defines the situations where no fatigue checks are required for buildings.
