Within the European Union the coming into force of common national laws in the pressure equipment field, all based on the very same legal act of the European Parliament and the European Council, the so-called Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) [1] created a serious need for corresponding complementary standards harmonized at a European level, adopted by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) at the request of the European Commission.

The PED requires certain types of pressure equipment brought onto the European Market to comply with the so-called essential safety requirements (ESR), in order to ensure the required safety of pressure equipment. Compliance with the requirements of a relevant harmonized standard provides for a product the presumption of conformity with the ESR that the standard addresses. The harmonized standards need not be used, they are only one means of demonstrating compliance with the ESR of the PED, but they are the only means that provide directly the presumption of conformity with the ESR.

This need for a harmonized standard created a unique chance and challenge: The chance for a new approach to Design by Analysis (DBA), using all the knowledge in engineering mechanics theoretical as well as practical and all the experience with numerical methods and with commercially available hard- and software, used in simulations of the behaviour of structures under various actions.

Work on this new approach, called Direct Route in Design by Analysis (DBA-DR), started in 1992, the first sketch of a draft dates October 1992. The draft...