SCI maintains leadership in composite construction

Graham Couchman, Chief Executive Officer of SCI, has been appointed the new Chairman of The European Technical Committee responsible for Eurocode 4 (design of composite steel and concrete structures).

Over the coming years this committee will consider feedback from early users of the code, as well as the latest technical developments, and inform designers of the content of a revised code that is due sometime before 2020.

Mr Couchman carries on a long tradition of key influence from the UK, with Professor Roger Johnson (Warwick University) having been the first incumbent of the Committee.

His first experience of design in the late 1980s involved a very early draft of EC4, which was used for the design of Sizewell B nuclear power station. Mr Couchman’s doctorate in the early 1990s was concerned with composite beam behaviour, and he has written a number of composite related SCI design guides over the years.

“I’m delighted to take up the new Chair and I look forward to carrying on the good work of the Committee, especially as composite construction has always been such a central part of my career,” said Mr Couchman.