Assessment of the Ultimate Limit State (ULS) in Eurocode 7 is to be carried out using “Design Approach 1” in the UK. In most cases this involves two design checks, one which primarily involves an “action factor” approach (Design Approach 1, Combination 1, termed DA1/1) and one which primarily involves a
“material factor” approach (Design Approach 1, Combination 2, termed DA1/2). The latter is generally straightforward to implement in numerical analysis procedures, but the former is potentially more challenging. A survey of the current literature on Eurocode 7 indicates differences of opinion on how best to undertake DA1/1 checks (the same differences of opinion also apply to the “action/resistance factor” Design Approach 2, DA2, checks). This can lead to inconsistent application of Eurocode 7 when undertaking a numerical analysis, which in turn can lead to differences in the resulting design solutions. In this two-part paper, a simple and consistent methodology for undertaking “action/resistance factor” design checks using numerical methods is proposed in Part I, while in Part II the methodology is used to develop a general-purpose design procedure which is then applied to a number of example problems.