40 MMA Yearbook 2007 Cliff Fudge, President of the British Masonry Society, explains what implications European standards are likely to have on the masonry industry in the UK. The Eurocodes for the Design of Masonry Structures (Eurocode 6) are now available from the British Standards Institution. The suite of Codes are comprised of the following: . BS EN 1996: Eurocode 6 – Design of masonry structures. . Part 1.1: General rules for reinforced and unreinforced masonry structures. . Part 1.2: General rules for structural fire design. . Part 2: Design considerations, selection of materials and execution of masonry. . Part 3: Simplified calculation methods for unreinforced masonry structures. Within each of the Parts there are a number of so-called Nationally Determined Parameters (NDPs), which are values or classes available for National Bodies to insert to enable differences in experience and safety levels to be observed. The UK National Annexes, setting out the NDPs to be used in the UK, are currently being circulated by BSI for public comment. These documents, together with previously published documents BS EN 1990: 2002: Eurocode – Basis of Structural Design and BS EN 1991: 2002: Eurocode 1 – Actions on Structures and their respective National Annexes, provide a suite of information for the design of most types of masonry building structures in the UK. The masonry industry has been involved in extensive amounts of work to reach the stage whereby the resulting designs are both safe and economic for UK construction. There are areas of design that vary significantly from current UK design practice, but nevertheless the end result should be that any design using BS design should be repeatable using Eurocode 6. The NDPs have allowed the industry to fine-tune the designs to suit the UK market and to ensure that there is no competitive disadvantage. European Standardisation Having the experience of the European Standardisation process from the first meeting of the CEN Technical Committee in 1990, and recognising that some compromises have been made, the end result is a design code that has a state-of-the-art design method, with a much better understanding of masonry. With the greater use of equations, rather than look-up tables, the design process is more readily convertible for computeraided design. It has also enabled newer forms of construction, such as masonry with thin layer mortar, to be codified. Larger format masonry units have also been included, as well as design parameters for different forms of mortar bedding, which allows greater innovation in the UK market. Part 1 Most differences occur between the current UK design and the Eurocode in Part1; this is where most guidance is likely to be required for users of the Code. It is worth looking at the other parts first to examine their contents and use in the UK. Part 1.2 contains an extensive set of tables of fire-resistance versus thickness required for a complete range of masonry materials. It has been virtually impossible to harmonise the values given in the tables across all of the Member States involved in the work. As a result, all of the tabulated values fall under the NPD banner enabling the continuation of existing thicknesses and design in the UK. Part 2 Part 2 has also been a difficult document in terms of achieving unanimous agreement across the Member States – mainly owing to the differences in practices in different parts of Europe and the legality of the documentation in different countries. This is where in some countries the Eurocode becomes a contractual document. This part does, however, contain the minimum amount of information required to enable the design to Part 1.1 to be achieved. Part 3 Part 3 provides simplified calculation methods for walls subjected to various types of loading. The methods are consistent with the rules given in Part 1.1, but are more conservative with respect to conditions and limitations of use. However, as they differ from the simple rules in Approved Document A to the Building Regulations, they will be of limited use in relation to UK practice, although the section on “walls subjected to limited lateral load but no vertical loads” (internal partition walls) is similar to the guidance given in our current BS5628-3. Since the resultant designs are uneconomic as far as UK design is Code of conduct .

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