Chapter 9: Serviceability limit states
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Published:2025
Roger P Johnson, Stephen J Hicks, 2025. "Serviceability 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 9 of EN 1994-1-1, which has the same main clauses as the previous Eurocode 4, where it was Section 7. These are as follows.
Clause 9 of EN 1994-1-1 is limited to provisions on serviceability that are specific to composite structures and are not in clauses 5 (for structural analysis) or 10 (for composite slabs), or in Eurocodes 1990, 1991, 1992 or 1993. Some of these other more general provisions are briefly referred to here.
The initial design of a structure is usually based on the requirements for ultimate limit states. Serviceability is then checked, by methods that give designers and clients greater freedom to take account of factors such as the intended use of a building and the nature of its finishes. The consequences of unserviceability are less serious than those of reaching an ultimate limit state, and its occurrence is less easily defined – for example, a beam with an imposed-load deflection of span/300 may be acceptable in some situations but not in others.
