New design rules for plated structures in Eurocode 3

Eurocode 3, Part 1.5 'Design of Steel Structures - Supplementary rules for planar plated structures without transverse loading' has been developed together with the Eurocode 3-2 'Steel bridges'. It covers stiffened and unstiffened plates in common steel bridges and similar structures. This paper presents the background and justification of some of the design rules with focus on the ultimate limit states. The design rules for buckling of stiffened plates loaded by direct stress are presented and explained. For shear resistance and patch loading the new rules are briefly derived and compared with the rules in Eurocode 3-1-1. Finally, the statistical calibration of the rules to tests is described. Additionally some differences between Eurocode 3, Part 1.5 and DIN 18800 - Part 3 are presented.