HUNGARIAN EXPERIENCE IN STRUCTURAL DESIGN CODING (HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF EUROCODE-2)

Abstract

This paper gives review of the historical antecedents of Eurocode-2 in Hungary and East Europe. The method of permissible stresses, using uniform safety factor was first changed in 1950 in Hungary by the semi-probabilistic method using partial safety factors. This new method was accepted with some resistance on the part of the leading structural engineers. Nevertheless most of the East-European countries accepted the new method with some political overtones', to be follow the Soviet example. The authors assert in the papaer that due to the economic necessities. Hungary and the other East European countries gained experience with the regulations affording less safety than the EC2, and this offers an interesting set of experience to the West European countries which have intoduced or are introducing the semi-probabilistic procedure. The most significant point all the experience is the recognition that only one part of the parameters in the structural analysis determining safety can be handled statistically. During design the statistically not significant data such as the error of the structural model must also be taken into consideration. Based on the experience, the authors propose an alternative design method.