The Institution of Engineers,

Malaysia

Universiti

Teknologi MARAUniversiti Malaya

61

12th International Conference on Concrete Engineering and Technology

12 – 14 August 2014

Implementation and Enforcement in Adopting Eurocode 2 For Concrete

Structures Design in Malaysia

Ir. Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Chiang Choong Luin

IEM Honorary Treasurer, Chairman, IEM Technical Committee on Earthquake, Dean, Faculty of Engineering &

Built Environment, SEGi University, Kota Damansara

1.0 Introduction

It was back in 2002, when The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) mooted the formation of the

IEM Position Paper Committee to draft a Position Paper entitled, “Design Standards for Concrete

Structures in Local Construction Industry After 2006”. At that time, UK had given an undertaking

that they will introduce Eurocodes as the structural design standards to replace the British Standards

in use then – such as BS 8110 (for concrete structures) and BS 5950 (for steel structures), to name a

few.

The IEM Position Paper was published in 2004 which specified the need to adopt Eurocode EC2 (or

to be more precise EN1992:2002 as the basis to draft the Malaysian Standards National Annex.

Subsequent to that, with the approval of Standards Malaysia, IEM formed a Technical Committee on

Design Standards for Concrete Structures in Malaysia in 2006. After four years of hard work, the

Technical Committee on Concrete Design had produced six sets of MS EN standards for the local

construction industry, which are:

1. MS EN1990:2010 – Eurocode : Basis of Structural Design

2. NA to MS EN1990:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode : Basis of Structural Design

3. MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 1 : Actions on Structures – Part 1-1 : General Actions –

Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for Buildings

4. NA to MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode 1 : Actions on Structures –

Part 1-1 : General Actions – Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for Buildings

5. MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Design of Concrete Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules

and Rules for Building Structures

6. NA to MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Malaysia National Annex to Design of Concrete

Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules and Rules for Building Structures

UK has already withdrawn all British Standards relating to structural design since May 2010.

Singapore has also followed suit, but they are introducing a transition period of two years

commencing from April 2013, in which both British Standards and Eurocodes can co-exist for

application and submission for approval purposes by local authority.

The question now is what do the Malaysian authorities plan to do to introduce and implement the

adoption of Eurocodes in Malaysian construction industry. And how should The Institution of

Engineers play its role in providing the incentive and support to ensure that the transition from BS

codes to Eurocodes can be carried out in a smooth and systematic manner.

2.0 Significance of the issue at hand – implementation of Eurocodes in Malaysia

At the moment, the decision-makers at the authorities are not aware of the seriousness in the

switchover of design standards for structural design from BS to Eurocodes. It all boils down to the

provisions in the Uniform Building By Laws (UBBL) in the which it currently still stipulates the use

of British Standards as the de facto approved standards for submission purposes.

62

The custodian of the UBBL is the Ministry of Housing & Local Government, while the Local

Authority is the body that shall implement the policies or provisions therein.

The problems faced now by the practicing engineers are as follow:

The awareness of Eurocode is not in depth enough among practicing engineers and other

users of codes of practice in design of structures.

The uncertainty surrounding the implementation is still prevalent, especially with the lack of

decision and direction by authority and policy makers.

The custodian body is sending out mixed messages across to the stakeholders, especially with

regards to the approval or non-approval of the Uniform Building By Laws which stipulates

the list of approved standards to be adopted in local construction industry.

The people in charge at the top is not treating the issue of Eurocode switchover seriously

enough; the process is unclear and delays in responding to enquiry as to timing to set for the

switchover or whether there is a transitional period similar to other adopting countries.

Since there is a lack of directive from the top to the various Government agencies including

public universities, then the teaching and practice of Eurocode design standards to students

and graduates of engineering is not made mandatory.

The end results to date: some universities are teaching Eurocodes as part of their design

subject syllabus, hence resulting in graduates who are able to design according to Eurocodes

but are surprise to find that the industry is still sticking to BS codes of practice, not yet ready

in switching over to Eurocodes.

For the older and senior practicing engineers, there is no incentive to learn a new design

standards or codes of practice, because the learning process is tedious and time-consuming.

The middle-level engineers who are well-versed in BS codes have difficulty in the switchover

because the perception is it is going to be hard to learn a new design philosophy, and so far

many of these engineers have not been attending the many Eurocode EC2 courses organised

by IEM.

3.0 Background

It was back in 2002, when The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) mooted the formation of the

IEM Position Paper Committee to draft a Position Paper entitled, “Design Standards for Concrete

Structures in Local Construction Industry After 2006”. At that time, UK had given an undertaking

that they will introduce Eurocodes as the structural design standards to replace the British Standards

in use then – such as BS 8110 (for concrete structures) and BS 5950 (for steel structures), to name a

few.

Since then, The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) has produced the following MS EN 199x

documents based on Eurocodes, which are published by Standards Malaysia or the Department of

Standards Malaysia (DSM):

MS EN1990:2010 – Eurocode : Basis of Structural Design (RM120)

NA to MS EN1990:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode : Basis of Structural Design

(RM20)

MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 1 : Actions on Structures – Part 1-1 : General Actions –

Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for Buildings (RM50)

NA to MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode 1 : Actions on Structures –

Part 1-1 : General Actions – Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for Buildings (RM20)

MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Design of Concrete Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules

and Rules for Building Structures (RM230)

NA to MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Malaysia National Annex to Design of Concrete

Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules and Rules for Building Structures (RM30)

MS EN1993-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 3 : Design of Steel Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules and

Rules for Building Structures (RM100)

63

NA to MS EN1993-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 3 : Malaysia National Annex to Design of Steel

Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules and Rules for Building Structures (RM20)

MS EN1997-1:2012 – Eurocode 7 : Geotechnical Design – Part 1 : General Rules (RM170)

NA to MS EN1997-1:2012 – Eurocode 7 : Malaysia National Annex to Geotechnical Design –

Part 1 : General Rules (RM30)

These are all available for purchase at Department of Standards Malaysia at their Main Headquarters

in Cyberjaya, or through online purchase.

4.0 Action Plans to Commence Implementation of Eurocodes

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) has been very proactive in this matter of adopting the

appropriate codes of practices / standards in Malaysia for structural design, since from year 2000.

And IEM has also taken the initiative and actions in drafting the first few parts of the Eurocodes for

adoption in Malaysia – as per the list given earlier. Other parties and agencies may have made claims

that they are involved or co-ordinators of Eurocodes drafting for Malaysia, but it is only IEM as the

recognised Standards Writing Organisation (SWO) which is the institution appointed by SIRIM and

then DSM to undertake this task for Malaysia.

Discussions were held with Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR), the Public Works Department, and then also

with top officials from the Ministry of Works, on how to move forward and put in place a mechanism

for the adoption of the Eurocodes in place of British Standards in a very smooth, seamless and

transparent manner so that the practicing engineers in the industry can submit their designs for

authority approval without any problem.

What are the next steps in the implementation procedures?

The intention here is to institute a transition period – which has been proposed at 3 years, after it has

been discussed and agreed upon by three parties, i.e. Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), The

Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM).

5.0 The Key Document – The Uniform Building By Laws (UBBL)

It has to be highlighted that the construction engineering practices in Malaysia is largely governed by

the provisions in the Uniform Building By Laws (UBBL) – which has its latest amendments being

approved in 2012. And the latest amendments in the UBBL include the replacement of British

Standards by Eurocodes being adopted as Malaysian Standards, named as MS EN standards,

particularly for those documents already prepared for concrete and steel design and others, as

stipulated above.

Therefore, in order for the construction industry and professional engineering practices related therein

to move forward, it is imperative that the Eurocodes have to be used eventually as the referenced

design standards for submission purposes.

The snag here is that not all of the local authorities have started to implement the revised UBBL, even

though Selangor State has officially adopted the revised UBBL. This has yet to be filtered down to

the local authorities’ level. There could be some reasons why the adoption is not implemented

immediately, such as:

It takes time and effort by the engineers and checkers in the local authorities to pick up the

intricacies of Eurocodes as opposed to the much more familiar British Standards

The documentation are not in place and it take time and financial resources to purchase the

necessary Eurocodes standards as reference materials

The local authorities had in mind to organise training sessions for its staff to be familiar and

able to use the Eurocodes as reference standards

64

The local authorities have yet to receive official directive from the State Secretariat on the

mandatory use of the revised UBBL

At the moment, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government is lamenting that they are not able to

enforce the revised UBBL 2012 to practicing engineers. This enforcement task is left to the local

authorities, and not just one, but all local authorities must start to enforce. Currently, in Selangor, the

State Secretariat has gazette the use of the revised UBBL 2012, even though there is still no printed

copy version. But the rest of the local authorities, for example, in Klang, Sabak Bernam or Petaling

Jaya have not started to enforce the revised UBBL 2012.

6.0 The Time Frame for Implementation

As highlighted in Section 4.0, the three parties concerned, BEM, IEM and ACEM have come together

and drafted a letter dated 5 June 2014 to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government

(Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, KPKT) to inform the Ministry of the Joint Stand

taken by the three engineering bodies with regards to the adoption and implementation of MS EN

Eurocodes in Malaysia.

As mentioned earlier, the three engineering bodies have come to a consensus that a proposed 3-year

transitional period (or moratorium period) is a good way to tackle the implementation of Eurocodes,

as it will allow sufficient time for local practitioners to be familiar with the new standards. This is in

line with other countries which have adopted similar measures, for example, UK implemented a 2-

year transition period from 2008 to 2010, when they fully adopted the Eurocodes in May 2010.

Likewise, Singapore has also put in place a 2-year transition period from April 2013 which will end in

May 2015.

In the letter from BEM to KPKT, the suggestion of a 3-year transition period is to commence from 1

June 2014 and will end in 31 May 2017. This will enable adequate preparation and training of local

engineers and university engineering students on the use of Eurocodes in design courses, in time for

them to be ready by 2017.

Even the Ministry of Education can come out with a directive to all local public and private

universities, to conduct all design structural courses with references to Eurocodes, starting from say

2015. A 2-year period should be enough to fully implement this into the teaching of relevant courses

at university level. The teaching of design courses normally commences from Year 3 onwards in a

typical 4-year engineering programme, unless it is a 3-year UK-degree course – which would then

have design courses taught from Year 2 onwards. That is when the use of MS EN Eurocode 2 will

have to be used in the teaching of design of concrete structures, in place of the withdrawn British

Standards BS8110.

The use of Eurocodes will be more prevalent when students go on to take their Final Year Projects

where the use of design standards will be emphasized, and also in integrated engineering design

where multi-disciplines are involved in the design of a typical project given to groups of students

most likely at Year 3.

Besides the education field, the IT software industry would also requires some time to institute and to

fine-tune the inclusion of Eurocodes as a design suite or package into their commercial software. In

the current scenario, most if not all software packages in the market nowadays have in place the

Eurocodes as a choice of design standard for users, in order to process their analysis and design steps

on using their commercial products.

Last but not least are the mindsets of the engineering graduates when they are being churned out from

universities into the industry. Eurocodes are here to stay, and if these graduates want to be

competitive not only in the local practice but internationally then, it is most definite for them to be

well-versed in the adoption and application of Eurocodes.

Figure 1 below shows a representation of a tentative timeline and milestone for Malaysia, in adopting

fully Eurocode as design standards in place of British Standards by 2017.

65

Figure 1 – Proposed timeframe for 3-year transition period towards full adoption of Eurocode by 2017

7.0 Training Programs and Useful References on Eurocodes

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, through the Civil & Structural Engineering Technical Division

has been actively organizing many seminars and courses since 2009 on Eurocodes especially on

Eurocode EC2 (Concrete Design). Of late, from 2008, IEM has also been organizing courses and

workshops on Eurocode EC8 (Design for Earthquake Resistance).

Some of the more recent training seminars / courses offered / conducted by IEM on Eurocode 2

includes the following:

17-18 October 2013, 2-Day Course on “Simplified Unified Practical Design to MS EC0, MS EC1

& MS EC2 From a Consulting Engineer’s Perspective”, by Ir MC Hee at Armada Hotel, PJ. (74

participants)

11 June 2012, 1-Day Pre CONCET 2012 Conference on “Design of Concrete Structures to EN

1992”, by Dr W M C Mckenzie, PICC, Putrajaya. (61 participants)

21 May 2010, 1-Day Seminar on “Adapting Eurocodes EC0, EC1 snd EC2 in Malaysia” by

various presenters, Dynasty Hotel, Miri, Sarawak. (36 participants)

10-12 March 2010. 3-Day Course on “Practical Design to MS EC0, MS EC1, MS EC2 from a

Consulting Engineer's Perspective”, by Ir MC Hee at Armada Hotel, PJ. (71 participants)

12 November 2009, 1-Day Seminar on “Adopting Eurocodes EC0, EC1 snd EC2 in Malaysia” by

various presenters at Puteri Pacific Hotel, Johor Baru (73 participants).

29 October 2009, 1-Day Seminar on “Adopting Eurocodes EC0, EC1 snd EC2 in Malaysia” by

various presenters at Evergreen Laurel Hotel, Penang (101 participants).

14 October 2009, 1-Day Seminar on “Adopting Eurocodes EC0, EC1 snd EC2 in Malaysia” by

various presenters at Armada Hotel, PJ (161 participants).

20 June 2009, Half-day Awareness Seminar on “Eurocodes - EC0, EC1 and EC2” by Ir MC Hee

at UTAR Campus, PJ (101 particpants).

It has always been the policy of IEM to charge relatively low attendance fees for participants

registering for IEM organized courses, so as to maximize participation by stakeholders in the industry.

But as a professional members’ institution of learned society, IEM will give preference to its

members, be they students, graduates or corporate members.

Other than holding such public activities to generate publicity and knowledge of use of Eurocodes to

the profession, IEM has also stocked up its Library in its premises with many volumes of up-to-date

references and even software on the use and adoption of Eurocodes.

The only thing that is lacking now is the sales of the Malaysian Standards MS EN publications, since

Standards Malaysia do not have the policy to appoint an NGO like IEM to be their agent in the sales

66

of MS publications from IEM premises. Those who wish to purchase such MS EN publications have

to contact Standards Malaysia or SIRIM.

Even as this conference is being held, IEM is in the midst of planning and organizing a series of

awareness seminar campaign for 2014 all over the country in both the Peninsular West Coast region,

and across to Sabah and Sarawak too. This comes courtesy of the SMART Partnership Programme

between IEM and Standards Malaysia, in which a amount of RM100,000 was provided by Standards

Malaysia to IEM as a grant to promote the usage of MS EN publications. IEM will also explore the

possibility of bringing along some MS EN documents (with permission of Standards Malaysia) for

purchase by interested participants.

The following are some useful references on Eurocode 2:

Designers’ Guide to Eurocode 0: Basis of Structural Design, 2nd

Edition (Designers Guides to

the Eurocodes), by Haig Gulvanessian et al, indicative price at USD121.34.

Designers’ Guide to EN 1992-1-1 and EN 1992-1-2: Design of Concrete Structures. General

rules and rules for buildings and structural fire design (Designers Guides to the Eurocodes),

by R.S. Narayanan et al, indicative price at USD105.37.

Manual for Detailing Reinforced Concrete Structures to EC2, by Jose Calavera, indicative

price at USD114.51.

Worked Examples for the Design of Concrete Structures to Eurocode 2, by Tony Threlfall,

indicative price at USD48.12.

Reinforced Concrete Design: To Eurocode 2, by W.H.Mosley & R.Hulse, indicative price at

USD47.07.

Concise Eurocode 2, published by The Concrete Centre, UK, priced at GBP45.

How to Design Concrete Structures to Eurocode 2 – A Compendium, published by The

Concrete Centre, UK, priced at GBP45.

Properties of Concrete for use in Eurocode 2, published by The Concrete Centre, UK, priced

at GBP45.

Worked Examples to Eurocode 2: Volume 1, published by The Concrete Centre, UK, priced

at GBP45.

8.0 Hierarchy of Standards Adoption

It has to be noted that there are a total of 58 Parts of Eurocodes to be drafted in terms of National

Annex before being adopted as such into MS ENxxxx. So far, IEM has assisted Standards Malaysia

in developing 10 sets / parts of the Eurocodes, which are deemed to be essential for initial use in the

industry.

Hence, in terms of the hierarchy of standards to be adopted, in accordance to the Uniform Building By

Laws (UBBL), the Malaysian Standards should they be available shall take precedence over all the

other referenced standards, even the British Standards.

It has to be noted that there is a Malaysian Standards on Design of Concrete Structures, MS1195-1997

which is the replica of BS8110, but in the professional practices, all references were still made to

BS8110 and other BS codes.

Nevertheless, with the revised UBBL 2012, the Malaysian Standards in the form of MS EN199x –

2010 shall take precedence where they have been developed and published.

But in the case of the Eurocode parts yet to be developed into NA to MS EN versions, it was decided

that the British equivalents, NA to BS EN versions shall prevail. In the event of situations where

neither MS EN or BS EN could provide guidance, then the original EN standards shall be referred to.

Under very special circumstances, especially in specialists’ areas not covered by the preceeding

standards, the users may refer to other accepted international standards available such as ISO, ACI,

67

AS, NZS, CNS, and so forth. This is up to the discretion of the design engineers, who shall take full

responsibility based on their knowledge and experience.

9.0 Suggested Approach in Adopting Eurocode 2

9.1 The use of hand calculations and design aids compared to computational software

As with all standards, their use has to be tempered with knowledge and wisdoms gained either from

study, training or experience of the design engineers. But, the use of hand calculations has to be

emphasized in order for the engineering graduates to fully understand the basic fundamentals, and not

just to rely on commercial software to generate outputs of design calculated results, graphic drawings

and even detailing of steel reinforcement.

It has come to a stage where the graduates nowadays are expected to know how to use the available

commercial software on their first day of work in the design office. Understanding the drawings and

specifications aside, their employers trained them in the use of the software to input data in generating

structural models based on the in-built standards of practice available therein, even Eurocodes. This

is the fallacy of the current industrial practice, where design engineers are to churn out pages and

pages of computed results and drawings on a fast pace basis, due to the shortening of time for design

and planning given by clients.

These are the challenges faced by fresh graduates on the first day on the job to satisfy the need of their

employers. The intricacies of Eurocodes newly introduced are not emphasized but are to be learnt as

they go along. In order to overcome such problems, engineers have to fall back on detailed hand

calculations to get a feel of how structures behave, especially on deflection and deformation going

hand in hand with expected loadings applied. The flowchart in Figure 2 shows how the Eurocode 2

can be used in a proper manner in accordance to flexural design of beam elements.

Figure 2 – Flowchart for flexural design to Eurocode 2

68

All the courses and training conducted by IEM to date are led by very senior and experienced

practicing engineers from the industry. The emphasis is always on basic fundamentals and the use of

hand calculations perhaps hand in hand with design charts given in standards. The use of software is

mainly to check or to verify the results obtained.

At the university level, traditionally all design courses are done with minimal exposure to commercial

software. It is only of late, due to the pressure of the needs of industry, generic and even commercial

software are purchased for use by university students in their courses especially in projects and some

research work. Through these means, students are given an early exposure to commercial software in

design courses, and if not handled properly, they will be taught to rely heavily on the software to work

on their projects and assignments without the need to write out manual calculations. That is the

challenge and balance faced by university lecturers in giving the right dosage of computational

exposure, not at the early years of study but more towards the final years, when complex design

problems are to be tacked by students.

Figure 3 is a typical design chart developed by The Concrete Centre, UK, to assist designers in

selecting beam configurations for span/depth ratio.

Figure 3 – Design chart for beam span/depth ratio to Eurocode 2

9.2 Basic fundamentals of concrete structures design to be maintained

Whatever standards practices are to be used, especially during the envisaged transitional period where

the Eurocodes and British Standards are to co-exist, the stress block model is still the basic

fundamental which has to be learnt by all students of structural engineering. Figure 4 below shows

the concrete stress block model used in Eurocode 2.

69

Figure 4 – Concrete stress block model to Eurocode 2

Compared to the concrete stress block used in BS8110 (see Figure 5), they look quite similar except

for the ratio used to distinguish the depth of the compressive concrete block.

Figure 5 – Concrete stress block model to BS8110

Eurocode 2 gives recommendations for the design of concrete up to Grade C90/105. Note that the

Grade C90 denotes cylinder strength of 90 MPa, as prescribed by Eurocode 2, whereas the

corresponding Grade C105 is the cube strength equivalent as per BS8110.

However, for concrete greater than Grade C50/60, the stress block is modified. It is important to note

that in Eurocode 2, concrete strength is based on the cylinder strength and not the cube strength (i.e.

for class C30/37 the cylinder strength (fck) is 30 MPa, whereas the cube strength is 37 MPa).

Though this concrete grade identification, the current cube strength used in the local practice can still

be maintained, to allow time for assimilation and adjustment by local designers, contractors and

material suppliers.

9.3 Intricacies of new standards to be highlighted compared to previous standards

What are the main changes we can envisage in Eurocode 2 compared to BS8110? The following are

some of the key differences design engineers will be seeing:

Eurocode 2 deals with the phenomenon, rather than elements types;

Design is based on characteristic cylinder strength, not on cube strength;

It allows high strength concrete, up to (C90/105);

Does not contain derived formulae (e.g. only the details of the stress block is given, not the

flexural design formulae);

Unit of stress is MPa, not N/mm2 as usual in UK standards;

Durability requirements are more explicit: cmin c,dev;

70

Plain or mild steel not covered;

Notional horizontal loads considered in addition to lateral loads;

Load combinations are given in EN 1990, a separate Eurocode document;

Eurospeak (verify, actions, imperfections) and subscripts, just to identify a few notable

changes.

The Concrete Centre, UK in its online website, has put up information to educate and to update on

various issues relating to adopting Eurocode 2. The following are some of the listed Frequently

Asked Questions (FAQ) with answers / responses given:

1. What are the new Eurocode equivalents of BS8110-1, BS8110-2, BS8007 (Code of practice for

design of concrete structures for retaining aqueous liquids), BS5400 (Steel, Concrete & Composite

Bridge Design), BS8102 (Code of Practice for Protection of Below Ground Structures Against Water

from the Ground), CIRIA 139?

BS EN 1992-1-1 and BS EN 1992-1-2 replace BS8110-1, BS8110-2.

BS EN 1992-2 replaces BS 5400, but note that BS EN 1992-2 has to be used in conjunction with

BS EN 1992-1-1.

BS EN 1992-3 replaces BS 8007, but note that BS EN 1992-3 has to be used in conjunction with

BS EN 1992-1-1.

BS 8102 is not replaced by a Eurocode, but a new revision is currently being prepared.

CIRIA 139 is a guidance document to BS 8102 and will presumably be updated in line with BS

8102.

2. When will I have to change from using BS8110/BS5400 to using Eurocode 2?

BSI plans to withdraw BS 8110 and other structural concrete design codes on or about 31 March

2010. ‘Withdrawn’ indicates that a standard is no longer current and has been superseded by another

standard or is no longer relevant to industry. It will also no longer be supported by a committee,

which means that it will not undergo a five-year review. The standard is not necessarily unsafe, but

will increasingly become outdated and therefore not current best practice.

For bridges, the major clients are public bodies and under European law they should require designers

to use Eurocodes from March 2010 for new contracts. For buildings there is no obligation to use

Eurocode 2 from this date as the building regulations only require that the designer shows that design

is safe; there is no obligation to use a particular Code of Practice. Clients (particularly those which a

Public Bodies) or a designer’s insurers may require the latest Codes of Practice to be used this will be

a driver to change over to Eurocodes.

5. What is the relationship between cylinder strength and cube strength? And is it the same

for lightweight concrete?

There is no single expression linking cylinder strengths to cube strengths in Eurocode 2, but

they are given in Table 3.1 of BS EN 1992-1-1 for normal weight concrete.. For lightweight

concrete the information is given in Table 11.3.1 and roughly speaking the cylinder strength

is 90% of the cube strength.

6. What angle of the concrete strut should I take in assessing the shear strength to Eurocode

2 as it is not set at 45 degrees?

The concrete strut can be varied between 21.8° and 45°. The shallower the angle the more efficient

the design. Generally, it will be found that a strut angle of 21.8° provides adequate strength and it is

therefore advised to assume this in the first instance. For short beams and transfer beams the strut

angle may need to be increase and the angle required can be calculated. Further guidance is given in

How to design concrete structures using Eurocode 2, chapter 4, beams.

71

The above FAQs can be a good reference for users of Eurocode 2 to build up their own list of FAQs

to seek answers from IEM or from direct online communications with BSI. As a start, it would be a

good idea for the new users to acquire some of the listed references given above, and start to read up,

as companions to the actual MS EN codes readily available from the direct source at Standards

Malaysia.

9.4 Further work in completing MS EN1992 Eurocode 2

So far, IEM has completed only MS EN1992 Part 1-1, and there are three more parts that follow in

Eurocode 2 alone, as shown below for equivalent BS EN versions

Eurocode 2 has four parts:

BS EN 1992-1-1:2004 Design of concrete structures. General rules and rules for buildings

BS EN 1992-1-2:2004 Design of concrete structures. General rules. Structural fire design

BS EN 1992-2:2005 Design of concrete structures. Concrete bridges. Design and detailing

rules

BS EN 1992-3:2006 Design of concrete structures. Liquid retaining and containing structures

In the immediate future, IEM is planning and organizing two Technical Committees to draft MS

EN1992-1-2 (Structural fire design) and MS EN1992-2 (Concrete bridges design and detailing rules).

10.0 Conclusion

The IEM Position Paper was published in 2004 which specified the need to adopt Eurocode EC2 (or

to be more precise EN1992:2002 as the basis to draft the Malaysian Standards National Annex.

The intention is to institute a transition period – which has been proposed at 3 years, after it has been

discussed and agreed upon by three parties, i.e. Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), The Institution

of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM). During

the 3-year transition period, both Eurocode 2 and BS8110 can co-exist and used as submission

standards. The proposed start of the transition is 1 June 2014 ending in 31 May 2017.

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, through the Civil & Structural Engineering Technical Division

has been actively organizing many seminars and courses since 2009 on Eurocodes especially on

Eurocode EC2 (Concrete Design). And these activities will be continued intensively during the

transition period, in collaboration with Standards Malaysia.

All the measures to enable a smooth transition to Eurocode 2 have to be implemented so that the

practicing structural engineers can work within the required safety and economical needs of built

concrete structures.

There is still much work ahead to complete the task in developing all the remaining three parts of MS

EN1992 on concrete structures design, and this can be done if co-operation and understanding can be

sought from all relevant stakeholders in the construction industry.

REFERENCES

1. MS EN1990:2010 – Eurocode : Basis of Structural Design.

2. NA to MS EN1990:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode : Basis of Structural

Design.

3. MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 1 : Actions on Structures – Part 1-1 : General Actions –

Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for Buildings.

72

4. NA to MS EN1991-1-1:2010 – Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode 1 : Actions on

Structures – Part 1-1 : General Actions – Densities, Self-weight, Imposed Loads for

Buildings.

5. MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Design of Concrete Structures – Part 1-1 : General

Rules and Rules for Building Structures.

6. NA to MS EN1992-1-1:2010 – Eurocode 2 : Malaysia National Annex to Design of Concrete

Structures – Part 1-1 : General Rules and Rules for Building Structures.

7. Concise Eurocode 2, published by The Concrete Centre, UK.

8. How to Design Concrete Structures to Eurocode 2 – A Compendium, published by The

Concrete Centre, UK.