The Seismic Action Comparison Between Chinese, American, European And Japanese Seismic Design Codes For Buildings

The safety of human life and property was severely impaired in the past earthquakes. China is vast in territory, but also a earthquake-prone country. In the past years, great losses were suffered in the earthquake-attacked areas. The most effective method to avoid these losses is civil engineering protection measures, which is mainly reflected by the seismic design code. The United States and Japan are stated in the Pacific seismic belt which is a very active seismic region, but their deaths is much fewer and structure destruction is more slight than China. The houses in European countries also showed good seismic performance under the earthquakes. Therefore, the comparison of seismic design codes between China, the United States, Europe and Japan, can help our country better reference the advanced research achievements and practical experiences,and improve our civil engineering measures to mitigate life and property losses.This paper compares the seismic design regulations in seismic codes of China, the United States, Europe and Japan, including the following aspects:1) Basic requirements of seismic design such as seismic hazard zoning method, site classification, earthquake fortification level and objectives, importance category and seismic design method were compared, the differences in seismic hazard zoning method and seismic fortification of the four codes were analyzed, the site category of the four codes was corresponded.2)The elastic design spectrum in the same return period and similar site conditions of the four codes were compared, so as to analysis the seismic force level in the same seismic risk of the four codes. By comparing the base shear coefficient of reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure under earthquakes in the same return period and similar site conditions, the design seismic force of RC frame structure in the same seismic risk of the four codes is studied. The strictness evaluation index of aseismic design based on seismic design calculations was compared after introducing the displacement limit values, then the strictness of seismic design of each code was analyzed.3)A specific RC frame structure's earthquake response is calculated in the methods given by the four codes, and the distribution of floor seismic force,the value of floor shear and inter-story drift are compared, the strictness of the RC frame calculated through each code was discussed.