ABSTRACT

Thistechniqueisfarmorebetterthanthatbasedoncurvefitting,therangeof applicationofwhichisratherlimitedandoftennotclearlyspecified.Themodels resultingfromsuchresearchworkscanthenbesimplifiedbeforemakingthemavailable todesigners.AnnexJofEurocode3[2]istheresultofsuchasimplificationprocess;it canbeusedasareferencedocumentbutremainshoweverrathercomplicatedtoapplyin ahandcalculation.Furthersimplificationshavethereforebeenachievedintheframeof arecentSPRINTproject[3],intheframeofwhichsimpledesignsheets,designtables andsoftwareshavebeenproduced.Suchdesigntoolsreallyallowthedesignersto benefitefromthesemi-rigidconceptwithoutincreasingthecalculationcosts.