Seismic performance of reinforce concrete buildings designed according to codes in Bangladesh, India and U.S.

Three geometrically similar commercial reinforced concrete buildings in high seismic regions of Bangladesh, India, and U.S. were designed and detailed per the respective codes. Three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic analyses of the designed structures were conducted. Each structure was subjected to a pair of orthogonally applied artificial ground motions compatible with the design response spectrum for each building code. The structural performance of each building was compared in terms of roof displacements, inter-story drifts, load-carrying capacity of beams and columns, and overall energy dissipation characteristics. The comparisons allowed an in-depth evaluation of the differences in the seismic performance of buildings designed according to ASCE 7-10, BNBC-1993, and IS-1893 codes. The Indian code performed better when subjected to the ground motion that is intended to represent the Indian design response spectrum.