Comparison and evaluation of the current building codes for earthquake resistant steel structures

Abstract

In the last years, earthquake design of structures becomes an important phenomenon due to the disastrous earthquakes. Accurate modeling of the seismic action is really important to observe the real behaviour of the structure under earthquake forces. "Specification for Buildings to be Built in Seismic Zone" is used for the earthquake resistant design of structures which is published at 2007 by The Ministry of Public Works and Settlement. The code used in Turkey is compared theoretically to Eurocode 8 which is published at 2003 by European Committee for Standardization in this study. The national building codes used in Turkey for design of steel structures are described to be insufficient by academicians and structural engineers. Eurocode 3 will be a good alternative for the design of steel structures in Turkey in the entry process to European Union. The differences and similarities of Eurocode 3 and TSE 648 are presented in this thesis. During the theoretical compression of the codes, the ground conditions, the definition of seismic action, the design conditions for earthquake resistant structures, calculation methods for the seismic action and the main design rules of the steel structures are mentioned by comparison of the codes in the thesis. This study ends with a comparative example using the "Specification for Buildings to be Built in Seismic Zone" for the calculation of seismic action and Eurocode 3 and TSE 648 for the design of steel structure.