Harmonization and improvement of fracture mechanical design codes for steel constructions

The fracture mechanics based methodology used to develop the Charpy-V transition temperature criteria in the Eurocode 3 standards EN1993-1-10 and EN1993-1-12, combined with an extension of the original method to higher yield strengths, is used to estimate impact toughness influence factors qi in line with the crane standard EN 13001-3-1. The inherent conservatism in the present Eurocode 3 methodology is quantified and new transition temperature requirements accounting for the built in conservatism in EN 1993-1-10 and EN 1993-1-12 are obtained in the form of a simple table based on the sum of the influence factors ∑qi. The new requirements are universal, i.e. they do not correspond to a specific material standard or sub-grade. The requirements are only a function of the sum of the influence factors ∑qi. The results can be extended to lower transition temperature requirements, if for the applied steels such transition temperatures can be fulfilled.