Design Standard

Eurocode 7 is a design document that establishes rules and standards for geotechnical engineering design across Europe (BSI, 2004). Eurocode 7 represents a major change in design philosophy. Traditionally a single, lumped factor of safety accounts for all of the uncertainties in the problem. With Eurocode 7, partial factors of safety are applied to different components of the analysis. The partial factors are applied prior to the analysis to give design values that are used in the calculation. The final result is an over-design factor, which must be greater than 1 to ensure the serviceability limit state requirement is satisfied.

To apply Eurocode 7 or British Standard 8006 specifications to an SWedge model:

1. Select the Design Standard tab in the Project Settings dialog.
2. Select the Design Standard that you would like to apply from the drop-list box. The following pre-defined options are available:
3. • Eurocode 7, Design Approach 1, Combination 1
   • Eurocode 7, Design Approach 1, Combination 2
   • Eurocode 7, Design Approach 2
   • Eurocode 7, Design Approach 3
   • BS 8006: 1995 Section 7 - Reinforced Slopes
4. To view the partial safety factors which will be applied during the analysis, select the View Partial Factors button. Note: you cannot edit the factor values for the pre-defined standards. If you wish to define custom factors, see the section below.

User-Defined Factors

If you wish to customize the design standard partial factors, you can do this as follows:

1. Select the Add button.
2. In the dialog which appears, choose a design approach to define initial values, and select OK.
3. You will see the Partial Factors dialog, which will now allow you to enter a user-defined value for any partial factor.
4. When you are finished customizing the factors, enter a Name for the custom list and select OK.
5. You will be returned to the Project Settings dialog, and the Name of your custom list will now appear in the Design Standard list, and will be selected by default.

To Import, Export or Delete custom design standards, select the Name of a user-defined standard from the Design Standard list and follow the instructions.

Eurocode Design Tutorial

For a tutorial which demonstrates how to use the Design Standard option for slope design, see Tutorial 7 - Slope Design with Eurocode 7.